Using Technology to Fill the Gaps in Your Marketing Funnel
BY Katie Chambers February 05, 2026“I’ve always looked at data and patterns to solve customer and business problems and marketing problems,” said Shana Sood, chief marketing and communications officer at Prudential. She has always leveraged her background as a data analyst in her current role, which focuses on customer marketing and technology, she said during a fireside chat at From Day One’s January virtual conference. When reaching the customer requires a multi-layered approach, analytics can help fill the gaps, she says.Sood envisions Prudential’s technology as serving two layers of customers: B-to-B-to-C, from the tech team to the financial advisors to the clients. She analyzes both existing technology stacks and new models to determine the best approach to “collect the breadcrumbs all the way from the start,” identifying client needs and simplifying financial jargon so end users can better understand it. “For me, how technology bridges this gap is: first, tell us how the customer is speaking about these products, how the customer is thinking about these products, [and] how they shop. What are their journeys?” she said. “And then, how do I then prop up my advisor with the right tools and the right education to be able to [provide] the right product based on whatever the customer needs at that point.”The key, she says, is “data-driven personalization,” which integrates with the content management system, Adobe website interaction insights, and the Salesforce marketing cloud. Prudential’s platform includes a feedback loop that shows the customer journey: what they searched for on the website and where it led them. It then uses that info to identify the best emails to send the customer based on their current needs. It also helps determine the next best action, such as a phone call from an advisor to help the customer with their financial decisions. “All of this is made possible with data pipelines between multiple systems,” Sood said. Because financial decisions impact many areas of a person’s life, they can be highly emotional moments. Sood sees retirement planning and life insurance selection as major emotional hurdles. “These things very quickly and very vehemently trigger avoidance from the customer, because as humans, we don’t want to see ourselves old. We want to avoid the topic of not being here,” she said. No matter how simple or complex the product, the customer must be emotionally ready for the conversation. And of course, an already fraught discussion can easily become bogged down by financial compliance language and daunting legalese.It’s Sood’s job to bridge the gap between emotional need and financial product being sold: “When you have a kid, you’re going on Google and you’re searching for, ‘How do I finance their education?’ You’re not searching for, ‘How do I open a 529?’” When the average consumer doesn’t know what “529” means, including that phrase in all your financial messaging may not help. But bidding on keywords like “confused about kid’s education” will. “You’re almost translating,” said moderator Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter at the Seattle Times. Incorporating Emerging Technologies Sood sees AI as the latest step in a much longer evolution of data-driven marketing. For decades, teams have used statistics and manual analysis to predict customer behavior. AI “has removed a lot of those manual gymnastics.” Rather than replacing human judgment, AI is accelerating it, especially through generative and agentic use cases that help scale content and decision-making.At Prudential, that means empowering advisors with AI tools that synthesize complex product information into clear, conversation-ready guidance. Instead of navigating a “labyrinth of pages and microsites,” advisors can prompt an AI agent to surface the most relevant products for a client’s needs, streamlining preparation while leaving the final judgment firmly in human hands. Sood says AI reduces friction and manual labor, but “it is [ultimately] the judgment of the advisor on what packet to use and what to say.” AI’s greatest gift to the industry has been streamlining a process that has long existed. Shana Sood, chief marketing and communications officer at Prudential Financial, was interviewed during the fireside chat (photo by From Day One)Sood cautions that AI should be used sparingly in the financial services industry because it involves taking risks with people’s money. Identifying fraudulent behavior is a serious concern possibly best left to human critical thinking. She also warns that website personalization techniques have to be carefully employed so that they are compliant with FINRA and SEC regulations, subtleties that sometimes AI does not understand. That is my biggest challenge [with AI],” Sood said. “I have to be very mindful, and I have to adopt the regulatory framework in using and scaling a new tool.” The implementation of AI tools, she says, should involve a thorough exploration of customers’ needs, many rounds of testing and case studies, consultations with legal and regulatory experts, and an intentional measurement plan that notes both financial successes and harms. Sood sees herself as a “realist” when it comes to technology. I’ve worked in the data grind so much that I am always aware of the 100 ways we can fail in adopting a new technology,” she said. “You can adopt a new shiny tool, but then if your processes and people are not structured to use it, then it’s going to fail.” And she emphasizes that less is more: KPI’s need to be consolidated at a business level. “If a company has multiple product teams or multiple business divisions, and each of them is incentivized to sort of make their email program deliver more click-throughs and more engagement, they will keep bombarding their customers with their next best message without realizing that ultimately it’s the same customer that is being reached out [to] by all three of them.” Sood says strong vendor partnerships help organizations strike the right balance between healthy skepticism and falling behind, especially as competitors adopt new technologies. She emphasized the importance of digging beyond headline success stories to understand how and why a tool delivered results, and whether those conditions actually apply in a financial services environment. Once relevance and adaptability are established through due diligence, the goal is to move quickly into testing, embracing early adoption without skipping the hard questions.A Legacy Company Looks to the Future As Prudential enters its 151st year, the corporate culture continues to innovate and grow. “At Prudential, there is a very intentional strategy to carve out innovation centers. Not blunt-force tools to disrupt everything. There is a very careful balance,” she said. “We carve out a very intentional sort of audience, a test case [for a specific] environment, we will try a new tool, and we will see how it does.” Progress is not just about chasing new technologies but also refining the ones already in place. To better reach their audiences, Sood says companies should start by maximizing the value of their existing technology and data, “milking the cash cow” of the current tech stack. Most organizations already hold rich customer, behavioral, and churn data, but it lives in siloed systems that prevent teams from spotting patterns or delivering timely, personalized experiences. Simply connecting those systems isn’t enough. Without cross-channel orchestration, aligned content, and clear next-best-action strategies, even unified data won’t translate into meaningful customer engagement.Looking ahead, Prudential anticipates a major wealth transfer from Baby Boomers to Millennials. Don’t assume that the wealth transfer will keep your paradigm the same. “Don’t assume you can use the same language [and] tactics to be able to resonate with who the wealth is being transferred to. If it is more women, if it is more young customers, then you have to change how you’re staggering on the digitization spectrum,” she said. The organization is currently researching future customer needs, motivations, behaviors, and communication styles to refine how it presents itself to them. “Anything that can simplify and unify—that is what is most needed in the financial services landscape.” 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, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photo by ArtemisDiana/iStock)
How Does Your Brand Show Up in the New Era of GEO?
BY Ade Akin February 04, 2026Damien Slattery couldn’t help but notice how fast culture around him had changed during a recent commute on the F train in Brooklyn. The subway car he rode in would have been filled with people reading newspapers or magazines decades ago, but everyone now stared at electronic screens. For Slattery, the SVP of strategic growth and partnerships at Inc. and Fast Company, this observation highlighted the tremendous shift facing marketers today. The blueprint has been completely rewired, and AI is now directing its future. Slattery, a media veteran who has led marketing campaigns for major brands like Time and Sports Illustrated, discussed this technological shift and more during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s January virtual conference. We’ve now moved past the era of search engine optimization (SEO) into a new chapter that’s defined by answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO), he says. “The AI universe has just re-engineered and reimagined what search prioritizes,” Slattery told session moderator, Steve Koepp, From Day One’s editor in chief and co-founder. “Brand leaders today have to be thinking about these AI models working behind the scenes to cite, summarize, and trust your narrative, your product, your service.”The Rise of the Answer EngineThe transition from keyword-focused SEO to AI-prioritized AEO represents a fundamental change in how brands must approach content. Slattery recalls the early days of digital search, where the marketing goal was to rank high for specific search queries. Today, AI-powered search engines prioritize providing the best, most concise answer rather than simply listing links to potential answers. “I had CNBC on early this morning, and they had the OpenAI CFO on from Davos, and she said something that really kind of crystallized our conversations today,” Slattery said. “The best answer is no longer or not necessarily the paid answer, right? The best answer is going to be serviced.”Today’s marketing teams should aim to be selected as an authoritative source by AI. “It’s a new muscle we all have to build,” he said. “And it’s going to make us better marketers, better storytellers, and [help] leverage the power and might of AI more strategically.”Koepp noted this new landscape is fragmented among several competing AI platforms, unlike the Google-dominated era of SEO, where marketers mostly focused on learning the rules to rank high on Google’s search engine. Slaterry says brands must now ensure that their core narratives and data are trustworthy enough to be recognized as the best source of information across multiple “answer engines.”Building Trust in an AI-Driven WorldThe age-old concept of trust remains vital as AI transforms the marketing landscape. Slattery points to the Edelman Trust Barometer, which found in 2023 that businesses are more trusted than governments and institutions. That trust has gone local. “We have to be super rigorous,” Slattery said regarding building trust with targeted audiences. He emphasizes what he calls “trust signals,” which include verifiable reviews, professional credentials, detailed FAQs, and accurate product descriptions. Damian Slattery, the SVP of Strategic Growth & Partnerships and Inc. and Fast Company (Mansueto Ventures), spoke during the virtual session (photo by From Day One)In keeping and building trust, Slattery warns against losing the human element that makes up the core of branding as organizations rush to adopt AI. He referenced a new campaign from Equinox titled “Question Everything But Yourself,” which uses absurd, AI-generated imagery, like a woman biting a dog that’s really a cake to deliver its messaging. For him, it’s an example of how an organization can brilliantly leverage AI’s capabilities to deliver a profoundly human message.“Brands need to keep it real,” Slattery said. “That can become the thing that makes AI surmountable for those who feel like, where do I start? You start by keeping your brand human and then chipping away at these things that will make your brand discoverable and trusted.”This human focus connects directly to its customers, the ultimate targets of a company’s branding. “It’s customers who infuse the meaning into the brand,” Slattery said, recalling a colleague who was turned off by a poorly personalized message on her Starbucks cup. Every touchpoint, from social media to customer service, shapes that personal relationship, and a single misstep can alter perception.The Impatient, Agentic FutureSlattery also explored the near-future implications of AI and marketing, describing an “impatience economy,” where AI shortens the consumer journey from consideration to purchase into mere seconds. This raises a potentially disintermediating puzzle.“Once an agent knows the consumer well, the trust follows in the agent, not the brand,” Slattery said. “The agent is winning the relationship and the trust, as this intermediary with the brand.” The risk is that customer loyalty shifts to the AI assistant that knows their preferences, rather than the brand itself.For chief marketing officers, the mandate is clear. Brands must lean into the new reality of generative engine optimization by ensuring their content is structured for AI discovery, their data is impeccable, and their narrative is both grand and granular.The journey from the folded newspapers on the F train to the glowing screens of today took a few decades. The next leap will be into a world where AI agents do our searching and synthesize our choices at the speed of light, and that’s coming in the next several years.“What got you here won’t get you there,” Slattery concluded, echoing management guru Marshall Goldsmith. The work of adapting to the answer engine economy starts now for brands that wish to matter in the future.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by Sandwish/iStock)
More Than Efficiency: How Marketers Are Using AI to Deliver the Most Value
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza February 02, 2026Marketers have graduated from the experimental phase in marketing, moving beyond simple efficiency plays and content generation to embed the tech in processes and cross-departmental collaboration, reinventing the way campaigns are designed, funded, executed, and measured. The question facing marketers in 2026 isn’t whether to use AI, but where it delivers the most value. During From Day One’s January virtual conference on AI and marketing tech, four marketing leaders discussed ways they’re using AI to transform marketing strategies and outcomes.The most natural entry point into AI for marketers is content creation, says Honora Handley, VP of global marketing and AI strategy at Thomson Reuters. Drafting emails and crafting messaging are the low-hanging fruit many teams reach for first. But, she said, “a lot of the impact is really around creativity with workflows.” Routine tasks like approvals and ad-buys are all being rebuilt with AI agents that make the process more efficient and effective, especially across departments. While marketing might have workflow for budget requests, accounting and finance has another to approve requests and disburse funds. Good workflows mean those teams can communicate through their processes without inventing a whole new process. On a daily basis, Handley said, “it’s about carving out the time to think differently about how we’re using AI with the plethora of tools that the company has provided.”Tailoring campaigns has never been easier and more precise. This is a coup for account-based marketing. “Now there’s really no excuse not to have specific assets for individual people,” said Jeff Coyle, the head of strategy at Siteimprove and co-founder of MarketMuse. “We went from what was a scarce resource to infinite ability. Now it’s all about making sure everything you do is of the highest quality and editorial integrity.”Panelists spoke on the topic "From Insight to Execution: Using AI to Transform Marketing Strategies and Outcomes" during the virtual conference (photo by From Day One)Panelists agreed that AI has helped them make better, faster decisions. They can now spot underperforming ads and reallocate budget, sort leads, and pick the best calls to action, subject lines, and headlines in record time and with laser precision. There’s no shortage of AI-powered tools for marketers to accomplish these things, but whether a tool is worth the cost is down to business requirements, said Apoorva Shah, who leads marketing at Tata Consultancy Services. The first litmus test is comparing the tool’s capabilities to marketing goals. “Are we trying to improve our pipeline or demand gen? Are we trying to improve our content velocity? Do I want to improve my return on ad spend?”It also depends on whether the tools can connect to other systems and achieve that cross-departmental flow. “Efficiency and time savings alone aren’t as important as also making sure that we’re getting something meaningful from it,” said Michelle Kelly, the VP of digital marketing at Ecolab. Though marketing teams are adopting AI tools with increasing speed—and making great use of them—some are still under the impression that being AI ready means starting over. The most common misunderstanding about AI readiness is that marketers have to build something entirely new, says Coyle. A better strategy is to enrich what you already have, including processes for developing marketing assets and updating them.But make no mistake, every page of the website matters, he says. This is true both substantively (PR content affects product content) and technically (AI engines have to be able to read and interpret your content).As AI becomes infrastructure rather than novelty, the advantage will go to marketing teams that treat it as a connective tissue, not just a content engine. Panelists agreed: the real value comes from improving workflows across systems and teams. AI isn’t replacing marketing fundamentals. It’s raising the bar for how they’re executed.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by pixdeluxe/iStock)
The Hidden Costs of GLP-1s and How HR Can Rethink Employee Health
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski January 15, 2026Obesity affects nearly half of U.S. adults, making it one of the most urgent and widespread health challenges facing the country today. To address this concern, some individuals have turned to glucagon-like peptide-1 medications, otherwise known as GLP-1s. Access to GLP-1s and other weight loss treatments is quickly becoming a sought-after employee benefit. But with the costs of GLP-1 medications and other health aspects surrounding these weight loss aids, are there other ways that employers may rethink this health treatment route? The answer is a resounding yes.During a From Day One webinar titled, “The Hidden Cost of GLP-1s and How HR Can Rethink Employee Health,” Yasmine Meneses, manager of consultant relations and dietitian, and Manuela Abreu, head of nutrition and community and dietitian, at Nutrium explored this topic in detail and discussed ways that HR teams can rethink employee health as they uncover GLP-1 hidden costs. In their roles at Nutrium, an employer-focused nutrition benefit and health and wellness platform, Meneses and Abreu draw on their expertise to discuss GLP-1 medications and alternative approaches to weight management.The current state of metabolic health in the U.S. helps explain why GLP-1 medications have emerged as a treatment for obesity. Obesity rates are now three times higher than they were in the 1960s, rising from 13% to 40% today, Meneses says, underscoring how obesity and weight management increasingly affect the workplace. “It’s no longer just a public health concern but truly a major employer issue and an issue that we’re dealing with every day. For employers, this impact isn’t abstract.”Some of the results of this HR concern include medical claims, chronic condition management, leaves and disability, absences from work, productivity, rising pharmacy spend, and complexity managing these. “It’s not just a population trend, it’s an operational reality.” It was that pressure that set the stage for GLP-1s. “Employers have been searching for solutions that can truly drive meaningful change at scale,” said Meneses.Understanding What GLP-1’s Can DoManuela Abreu, the head of nutrition and community at Nutrium, spoke during the session (company photo)Abreu delved into what GLP-1s are, as some may not be too familiar with this type of medication. GLP medications were initially designed for Type 2 diabetes, not weight loss, she says. Ozempic and Wegovy are some medication names and all belong to the class of GLP-1 receptor agonists. In other words, they don’t replace the naturally produced GLP-1 hormone, but instead they amplify its action so it activates the same biological effect, but do so in a stronger, more long-lasting way. Every time we eat, GLP-1 is released from our gut and completes the job by telling our body food is coming in, energy is available, and we can start regulating our intake. It’s a constant conversation between gut and brain. “This shows that eating behavior is not driven entirely by willpower,” said Abreu. When the GLP-1 receptors are activated, it helps the body release insulin and improve glucose control, slows how quickly food leaves the stomach, and helps people feel fuller longer. The effects of GLP-1 were clinically compelling with amazing clinical results. For the first time, a medication delivered truly dramatic results for people living with obesity. The speakers noted that weight loss was both rapid and significant, with study outcomes surpassing those of any previous weight loss drug. Individuals and employers alike saw tremendous promise. Still, medication alone does not address the root causes of obesity.Hidden Health Costs of GLP-1sThere can also be hidden health costs associated with GLP-1s. In controlled studies, for example, participants aren’t relying on medication alone; they are also receiving nutrition support, medical supervision, and ongoing coaching.In real life, individuals might not have this type of support. Further, some people experience side effects, such as nausea, fatigue, and GI discomfort, and still have to deal with life’s daily tasks. “So this reality check makes long-term consistency much harder than it looks on the papers,” said Abreu. Another difference between the controlled environment and real life is the willingness to stay on the medication. When the medications cease, so do the physiological aspects. “So this is what we started seeing in real-world situations: about 70% of patients discontinue within the first year, and when they stop, up to two-thirds of the weight that was lost is regained.” Employers are learning the type of weight loss also matters. The employee taking GLP-1 medication may not get the right protein intake and they don’t just lose fat, they lose muscle mass, too. Less muscle means a lower metabolic rate and when the metabolic rate drops, weight maintenance becomes more difficult. Therefore, regaining weight becomes easier and employers are paying for a type of weight loss that makes long-term outcomes harder. “The bottom line is that medication without the right support is extremely fragile,” said Abreu. Aspects such as how to build protein intake, deal with unexpected events, and address stress or emotional eating aren’t covered. The root cause of obesity isn’t treated. How GLP-1 Hidden Health Costs Increase Overall Cost Meneses took over the cost segment portion of the chat and showed how hidden costs of GLP-1s can really increase the overall cost of using this medication. “The instability in health outcomes also creates instability in the entire system,” said Meneses. The GLP-1 landscape is changing constantly. New medications and new pricing make it difficult for the benefits team to deal with the complexity. When GLP-1 was originally used just for Type 2 diabetes, this was easier for employers to gauge costs. However, with weight loss usage and GLP-1s, the picture is less clear. Access pathways expanded and employees often perceived GLP-1s as being more affordable for employers to provide than is the case. Three new pricing models for GLP-1 use include the following: direct-to-consumer, where the member purchases the medication straight from the manufacturer and they receive a discounted price; compounded GLP-1s, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, which may be offered at a fraction of the cost but aren’t regulated or consistent; and, discount programs, such as GoodRX and TrumpRX (starting January 2026), which connects consumers to lower cost medications via discount. As pathways multiply, expectations of employees are increasing. They wonder why employers don’t cover GLP-1s or only cover them for certain employees. Hidden economic costs often enter the discussion at this point. Hidden economic costs can include organizational volatility, discontinuation waste, unequal employee experience, and productivity impacts. Volatility arises when employees start, stop, or adjust GLP-1 use, making it hard for HR to manage a consistent program and often triggering repeated costs. Discontinuation waste occurs when employees stop due to side effects or cost, then later restart, creating added administrative burden. Unequal experiences can emerge if eligibility is limited, raising fairness concerns. And productivity may suffer if nutritional gaps lead to low energy, irritability, or reduced focus.GLP-1 use isn’t linear. Some employees have it covered by their employers, some get it straight from the manufacturer, and some are stopping the medications altogether. This is why there’s movement toward a two-path operating model. Understanding the Two-Path Operating ModelAbreu details the two-path operating model by highlighting Nutrium’s framework. The program works whether the employer offers GLP-1s freely or in a more restricted form. “Regardless if your employer is covering GLP-1s, restricting them, or does not offer them at all, we keep hearing the same question, “How can we support everyone safely, consistently, and in a way that actually leads to sustainable results?” The Nutrium team works directly with employers and thousands of members as they pursue their individual health journeys. There are scalable, one-on-one personalized appointments with a registered dietitian and evidence-based guidance, says Abreu. It’s tailored to fit the individual’s health needs. By using patient data and behavior signals from Nutrium technology, the dietitians can detect health issues or warnings and step in before small issues become larger. The approach is prevention first for early intervention and protecting long-term metabolic health. “Our philosophy is simple,” said Abreu. “Medication can help, but long-term health comes from nutrition habits and consistent support.” In practice, this comes down to a unified system that turns into two clear pathways, one for employees already using GLP-1 and one for employees who don’t. HR teams can make more confident decisions about GLP-1s by first defining their philosophy and clarifying their organization’s stance. From there, building a dual-path system ensures all employees are considered and that the benefits strategy remains fair, predictable, and scalable.However, GLP-1s should not stand alone. They are most effective when paired with nutrition and behavior support, alongside a strong non-medication option for employees who choose a different path. Employers should also track outcomes, including long-term weight maintenance, and partner with providers grounded in evidence and shared value.Ultimately, the speakers agreed, GLP-1s can be powerful tools and highly attractive benefits, but lasting metabolic health depends on building a comprehensive approach that goes beyond medication alone.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Nutrium, for sponsoring this webinar. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish.(Photo by Varlay/iStock)
Solving the Healthcare Cost Crisis: Reducing Spend Without Cutting Benefits
BY Grace Turney January 13, 2026When Liz Hill joined Advance Auto Parts as director of benefits two and a half years ago, she faced a challenge many HR leaders are familiar with: healthcare costs were increasing faster than wages, and employees were questioning the value of their medical plans. For a workforce of 60,000, around 70% male, with an average age of 46, and spread across 4,300 locations, the situation was especially dire. “I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with a frontline manager,” Hill said during a From Day One webinar. “I asked what he wanted me to know about the medical plan. He said, ‘Oh, the medical plan, that’s for our older, more mature workforce.’” Hill saw that perception as a red flag. Younger employees were opting out entirely, viewing the high deductibles as too risky when they felt healthy. In 2025, Advance Auto Parts faced healthcare trend increases of 13%, which was well above the industry average of 9%. Hill knew she needed a new approach, and one that wouldn’t shift costs to employees or disrupt their existing coverage. The Provider Quality Problem The solution came from an overlooked option: helping employees choose better doctors. Research shows that the single biggest factor in a patient’s health outcomes and total cost of care is the individual provider they see. Yet most employees choose doctors by word of mouth or checking online reviews, and neither method necessarily correlates with cost efficiency or high-quality care. Lauren Chucko, the SVP of account management at Garner Health, spoke during the session (company photo)Lauren Chucko, senior vice president of account management at Garner Health, illustrated this with a striking example. Two spine surgeons, who were both quite popular among employees, had dramatically different outcomes. The first had patients who frequently experienced complications and needed revision surgeries. The second surgeon used minimally invasive techniques, had lower complication rates, and his patients spent significantly less—$69,000 in total claims versus $172,000, with zero out-of-pocket costs for members. Traditional provider evaluation methods, which merely average the previous year’s costs, had ranked the first doctor higher. But Garner’s database of 300 million patients, applying 550 different clinical metrics, revealed that the second doctor was actually superior across multiple measures: fewer unnecessary surgeries, lower complication rates, and more appropriate use of outpatient procedures.A Multi-Pronged Strategy Hill approached this challenge systematically, using what she called a “multi-pronged strategy.” This included operational improvements like carving out subrogation, pharmacy changes, and tightening leave of absence processes. But the largest opportunity was in value-based care. Rather than switching to a narrow network or committing to a specific carrier, Hill chose Garner’s plan-agnostic approach. The company maintained its full Anthem Blue Cross network but added a powerful incentive: employees who used Garner’s top-rated providers would have their out-of-pocket costs reimbursed up to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. “For a highly price-sensitive population like mine, that’s substantial,” Hill said. The plan was intentionally placed on Advance Auto Parts’ middle-tier option, which increased the deductible from $1,500 to $2,500 but offered the Garner reimbursement. The message was clear: use better doctors, save money. These innovative, outside-the-box solutions are exactly what’s needed to reduce spending while cutting costs in healthcare, without compromising the quality of care. The Importance of CommunicationHill’s team knew the success of these policy adjustments hinged on communication. They didn’t just announce the change; they orchestrated what one colleague called a “communication wheel” that kept turning through multiple phases. Before open enrollment, they trained the entire HR team, not just benefits specialists. During enrollment, they made creating a Garner account part of the required enrollment process in their benefits administration system. This was a crucial step that Hill credits with high adoption. They mailed customized materials to all 4,300 store locations, and ran content on TVs in stores and distribution centers. They also made a crucial naming decision: the plan became the “Anthem Silver Plus Garner Money Plan.” As Hill noted, “When you ask employees what medical plan they’re in, they often don’t know. So let’s call the plan what it is.” The approach worked. Despite having a passive enrollment system where employees could simply stay in their existing plan, 44% of the workforce enrolled in the Garner plan. More impressively, 53% of those enrolled created Garner accounts, well above the 30% benchmark. Hill’s advice for other benefits leaders is straightforward: dig into the data to build confidence in the methodology, communicate relentlessly through every available channel, and don’t be afraid to push vendors to customize solutions for your unique workforce. Most importantly, she emphasized, “When you make this decision, you’ve got to be all in from a communications perspective.” Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Garner Health, for sponsoring this webinar. Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photo by MonthiraYodtiwong/iStock)
Calm in the Storm: the HR Leader’s Role in Advocating for Well-Being and Mental Health
BY Jessica Swenson January 08, 2026As pressure on employees continues to rise, some companies are rethinking where responsibility for well-being sits inside the organization. At Fox Sports, that responsibility lives at the intersection of HR and business operations, according to Kim Beauvais, EVP of HR and business operations, who spoke with The Ankler’s executive editor Alison Brower at From Day One’s Los Angeles conference.She sees the combination of HR and business ops as “how the organization moves within the business to take care of its biggest investment: its people.”Beauvais praises Fox’s benefit programming—especially its mental health resources, which include access to the Calm app for each employee and their family along with a comprehensive employee assistance program (EAP) and specialized care through Maven for women across the fertility spectrum.She acknowledged the dual role of HR as both a risk manager and employee advocate, and the need for transparency about this dynamic. However, there are clear instances where employee advocacy is the top priority; at these times, she says, it’s up to HR to have the tough conversations with leadership or finance to initiate change. Kim Beauvais, EVP of HR and business operations at Fox Sports, spoke during the fireside chat session in Los Angeles One such situation occurred recently at Fox Sports. Before Covid, the EAP program was available only to full-time, benefit-eligible employees, Beauvais says. But as the pandemic highlighted a widespread need for mental health support—the company saw a 400% increase in mental health calls during and after Covid—she and her team realized a need to expand the program to its thousands of freelancers as well. “We talked to the unions about it, [saying] this isn’t a condition of bargaining. We just need to make sure our people are taken care of. It obviously took a lot of conversations, and there’s a financial impact to that, but I think post-Covid it became ‘How do we take care of our people?’ And this was an easy way to do that.”To learn more about the experience of front-line production employees, Beauvais has made a concerted effort to humanize her team by embedding them with production crews. This helps her HR leaders more directly understand the needs and struggles of the teams they support, and answer questions like “Why are [people] still working here? What do [they] wish was different about working here? What are the struggles about being on the road for 13 weeks straight?”Integration with these teams has caused a noticeable shift. Crews welcome HR partners into their environment and are no longer scared when they call or show up, she says. It has also given leaders insight that enables smaller-scale interventions with big impact, like offering UberEats credits to employees that have been on the road for long periods so they can share a meal with their families, or implementing a breast-milk shipping program to support new mothers returning from maternity leave into travel-heavy roles.“Building trust and having conversations with HR folks,” said Beauvais, enabled HR leaders to introduce the program and facilitate conversations with male production managers on behalf of these new mothers. “That’s an uncomfortable thing as a female, to talk [about breast feeding] to your male production boss that’s been doing TV for 25 years. So, we had those conversations and everybody was super supportive. It made for a much more inclusive environment on the road.”This demonstrates the company’s culture of ensuring that employees feel safe and know they are valued. Meeting employees where they are can be taught in new manager training, Beauvais says, but coaching leaders in real-time is really the most effective support. Her HR leadership team meets regularly with managers and uses role-playing to prepare them for tough conversations and emotionally complex issues. “We can’t be there every second of the day, but having those regular check-ins is really important.”It’s crucial for employees to feel safe to bring their whole, authentic selves to work, says Beauvais—and it seems that they do. The company has employee tenures exceeding 35 years, a testament to its culture and a strong sense of belonging. “Because money is not the only currency. It’s all the other things that bring them to work every day, like enjoying being with [their] co-workers and doing a really good job so that they continue to feel fulfilled.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and editor based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Evolving HR Systems into Engines of Action: How to Build a More Connected User Experience
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza January 08, 2026HR teams are under immense pressure to deliver a great employee experience, often with tools and processes that haven’t meaningfully evolved in years. The challenge of improving the employee experiences is not a lack of data on their employees. In fact, HR has access to more information than ever before, from engagement surveys and performance reviews to benefits uptake and attendance records. The problem is that this information is scattered across incompatible systems. When connections can’t be made, HR leaders miss the patterns forming right in front of them, like the early signs of burnout and disengagement or escalating turnover that could be stopped.During a From Day One webinar, HR leaders explored how employers are finally beginning to turn their HR systems into engines of action–tools that don’t just store information, but actively connect workers and improve the employee experience in real time.“We’ve inflicted an awful lot of digital friction on ourselves,” said Miriam Connaughton, chief people and experience officer at Simpplr. Employees must wade through disparate platforms, multiple log-ins, and poorly designed interfaces to find the information and tools they need to carry out basic tasks. “How do you make that user experience more seamless–more simplified–so you’re not forcing them to search through the tech morass to find what they need?” At the same time, some HR teams try to layer antiquated processes into outdated software, said Julie Develin, a senior partner at UKG. Too often, organizations digitize outdated workflows instead of rethinking how work should actually be done.If HR were to do one thing in 2026, Connaughton suggested that it should be a radical simplification of the employee tech experience. That means fewer clicks, clearer pathways, and systems that anticipate needs instead of requiring employees to hunt for answers.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, journalist and From Day One contributing editor, moderated the discussion (photo by From Day One)Talent acquisition and onboarding have been the most obvious places for HR to focus on process improvement, followed by basic employee fact-finding (like FAQ chatbots), but AI-powered HR tech is now mature enough for the complex task of what Connaughton and Develin call “performance enablement.” This means helping managers become better coaches and employees set goals that align with the company’s. “It’s the whole performance cycle and everything that goes with it.”This matters because HR technology has long lagged behind consumer technology. Employees aren’t using the same smartphone they had 10 years ago, yet many HR systems feel frozen in time. HR has grown accustomed to stability and wary of experimentation, so instead of trying a new process or new tech, they do nothing at all. “The cost of doing nothing has weighed on a lot of organizations,” Develin said. When HR tech systems don’t work, low adoption is often blamed on employee aptitude or even obstinance, but low usage is seldom a skills problem–it’s usually a design problem. “You know your tech is not good when your HR team is using the gum-and-duct-tape method to make it work,” Connaughton said.But artificial intelligence is changing HR’s habits. Today, AI has already proved it can automate routine tasks and reduce administrative burden, and leaders are quickly warming to its use. But, the panelists said, we should be thinking bigger: Its greater promise is employee personalization. Great consumer brands learn their customers and tailor the experience accordingly, so why can’t HR tech do the same? For a frontline worker, that might mean opening an app to instantly see their schedule, request a change, or receive a notification that PTO has been approved. For a manager, it could mean timely nudges about performance management or insights into team workload before burnout sets in. As Develin put it, when the experience works and employees feel cared for, they don’t just do the work–they engage.Done well, modern HR systems become the engine of the employee experience. Employees don’t have to think about where to go or whom to ask, like the best consumer tech, the experience just works.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Simpplr, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by A9 STUDIO/Shutterstock)
Matching Employee Expectations to Economic Realities: Where Leaders Should Focus
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski January 07, 2026From expanded mental health support to virtual healthcare access, employers have adapted to employees’ evolving needs since Covid. But those offerings are only part of the picture. Many workers are also asking for more affordable healthcare benefits. How can employers respond to these requests, and what other forms of economic support do employees expect from company leaders?These concerns were addressed during an executive panel discussion moderated by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter with The Seattle Times, at From Day One’s December virtual conference. Ulu-Lani Boyanton started off the session by asking what the panel guests often hear from their employees regarding healthcare wants and needs. “Employees want comprehensive benefits that make showing up to work easier as they grow and raise their families and care for their personal health,” said Gianna Cruz, director of client success at Maven Clinic.“In our latest State of Women’s and Family Health Report, 69% of those who were surveyed said that they would take or have considered taking a new role or a new job because it offers better reproductive and family benefits to them and their families,” said Cruz.“I think what we’re really seeing now is a push to personalization,” said John Von Arb, VP of total rewards for Essentia Health. Expanding voluntary benefit strategies in addition to the core benefits offered is what people are now looking for, he says. “Generational differences within the workforce today do drive a lot of the conversation around what the needs are because one size does not fit all anymore,” he said.Kimberly Young, SVP of total rewards at Amentum, a global leader in innovative technology solutions and advanced engineering, highlighted the importance of affordability and a work-life balance as benefits sought after by employees. “Obviously affordability is the number one priority, so a lot of the feedback is targeted towards the escalating costs,” said Young. “From a premium perspective they want turnkey care for a much lower cost.” “And they want something that covers a work-life balance,” added Young. “We find ourselves today trying to balance all of that.” How Employee Needs Changed Post-CovidThe needs of employees and their economic concerns have also changed since Covid. For healthcare industry professional Von Arb, it’s undeniable that Covid played a big part in changes within his organization. It was a “game-changer” for the industry, he said. Mental health support became a focal point, with about 150 employees trained in peer-to-peer support, he said.Since Covid, clients now view Maven’s benefits as a core part of a strong, effective benefits package rather than a nice-to-have, says Cruz. There’s also more of a focus on overall access to care, and specifically access that might have been limited during Covid. In general, there’s a push for equitable access in a virtual setting at a global scale. Post-Covid, there’s been a greater emphasis on mental health and wellness, Young says, along with increased focus on activity and flexibility as many employees continue transitioning back to work. Meeting Employee Expectations Regarding BenefitsThe panelists shared a range of approaches to meeting employee expectations, from offering greater choice and flexibility in plans to providing holistic support, chronic disease management, and tools that support lifestyle changes.Panelists spoke about "Matching Employee Expectations to Economic Realities: Where Leaders Should Focus" during the virtual panel session (photo by From Day One)Essentia Health strives to handle much of its benefits in house from the health plan perspective, Von Arb says, while identifying gaps where additional support is needed. The organization continues to focus on chronic disease management, covering weight loss medications such as GLP-1s, and exploring options that support lifestyle and life management changes.The organization also “built out a more robust value-based design strategy,” he said. This is done by getting groups of leaders together from the various departments. Doing so helps to answer the question, “How do we get members to engage with their own health journey?”Young stated that choice and flexibility based on different plan designs along with a robust mental health program were some solutions her company has offered to employees. “We’ve tried to introduce a variety of benefits that touch all aspects of the employee experience,” said Young. Cruz added that employers are expanding women’s and family health benefits and that employees increasingly expect more holistic support. She is especially enthusiastic about Maven’s maternity program, which helps employees in rural or underserved areas access care and supports them throughout pregnancy and the post-pregnancy period.How Technology Plays a RoleTechnology is also changing workers’ support in a major way. “Technology extends the ability for individuals to access, not just care, but high quality care if they live in an area where access is limited for whatever reason,” said Cruz. “Clients really utilize Maven’s round-the-clock virtual support.” “We’re focused on data-driven personalized coordinated care and helping employers deliver that to their employees and we’re also really focused on offering a seamless patient experience,” said Cruz. Technology and AI can really help members with their journey. When AI is used, it can help employees navigate all the options from a healthcare perspective, says Young. Personalization is vital because everyone’s journey is different. But to be effective, it has to be employee friendly, Von Arb said. From an HR perspective, many AI tools have made progress in this area, though some payroll, benefits, and HR systems still lag in using AI to support the employee experience.Ultimately, the discussion underscored that effective benefits strategies are no longer about adding more offerings, but about designing systems that are accessible, affordable, and responsive to employees’ real lives. As expectations continue to evolve post-Covid, employers face growing pressure to listen closely, personalize thoughtfully, and leverage technology in ways that genuinely support health, well-being, and long-term economic security.Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photo by Benjamas Deekam/iStock)
Creating Personalized Pathways for Growth and Development
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi January 06, 2026The traditional career ladder is giving way to something far less linear. Younger workers increasingly expect growth to look like a mix of learning, mentorship, and well-being rather than a step-by-step climb. Recent research shows that nearly nine in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials prioritize on-the-job learning and practical experience as central to their professional development.“This idea of a career ladder is sort of dead, and I like to think of it now as a climbing wall,” said Teresa Hopke, CEO of Talking Talent, Americas. Hopke spoke on an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s LA conference. Executives discussed how employee growth and development are changing as organizations move toward more inclusive, personalized career paths.Climbing the Career Wall, Not LadderShelley Colón, SVP of people and culture at SiriusXM, added that human resource departments have historically created linear paths for employees to climb up the company hierarchy, but now it “doesn’t totally resonate for the path of a lot of people.”SiriusXM has launched a storytelling series that highlights the careers of people within the company that were able to move across verticals and utilize their skills from one department and transfer it to another, she says. Lisa Richards, senior regional VP at LHH, emphasized that companies also have to understand what growth means for their employees. At LHH, new hires are provided with a form that asks them about their motivations. This opens up an opportunity to have a dialogue about what employees are looking to get out of joining the company, Richards says. “I think it is so critical for us to retain good staff. We don’t want to lose them,” said Richards. “So just having those conversations and getting to know your people from the top down and having that shared narrative is really key and important.” The Wonderful Company emphasizes promotion from within and a culture that supports internal career growth, says Kimberley Fernandes, VP and head of learning and organizational development.There's a cost to staff turnover and in order to retain staff, it's important to build a strategy to address the diverse needs of all employees and create opportunities that recognize individual skills in both technical and functional fields, says Fernandes. The awareness that individuals carry about their own motivations and how it changes over time can also be beneficial for the employee and the company, says Portia Green, VP of talent and organization development at NBCUniversal. Strong companies will continue to have conversations about what drives employees while they develop their own understanding of what their company’s culture is and whether their motivations align. Changing Workplace Cultures “Your organization has work to do. Leaders have work to do. But individuals themselves have a fair amount of work to do to understand themselves and the landscape that they operate in,” Green said. Organizations across the world are changing as younger generations enter more junior positions, creating a cultural divide in a multi-generational workforce. Companies now have to face societal challenges which are causing a shift in company cultures that for decades have resulted in Boomers and Generation X employees moving up as leaders, says Fernandes.Alison Brower, executive editor at the Ankler, right, moderated the discussion among panelists With Gen Z’s position in the workforce, companies are seeing a clash between differing mindsets and beliefs between the older and younger generations. “I see our role of how we build our leaders with the skills to have that inclusive mindset but also, build maturity and resilience in our younger employees,” said Fernandes.Hopke highlighted that teaching leaders about relational capabilities can drive the change that is necessary and inevitable in company culture. Many managers need to be able to develop human connections and often don’t ask their team what they need and carry simple conversations that foster stronger relationships. “Investing in these conversations is probably the key thing that will help us change our cultures around these different career paths and the way people are going to learn,” said Hopke. In light of the pandemic and the rise in remote work, Hopke says that through her prior experience as a flexibility consultant, she found that “flexibility isn’t the problem. Flexibility just shines a light on poor leadership.”“It comes back to teaching leaders how to have the right skills to hold people accountable, to set expectations, to have conversations, whether through a screen or face to face,” Hopke said. “People are craving connection, but you can plan connections, and you can figure out how to help people feel connected through relational skills.”Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Rethinking Pharmacy Benefits: Cutting Costs, Improving Care
BY Christopher O'Keeffe January 06, 2026Rising prescription drug costs have become one of the most persistent pressure points in employer-sponsored health care. For many organizations, pharmacy spending now accounts for as much as a quarter—or more—of total health care costs, with limited visibility into what’s actually driving those increases. As new drug categories emerge and traditional pricing models grow more complex, employers are increasingly questioning whether higher costs are inevitable—or structural.That challenge was the focus of a recent From Day One webinar about “Rethinking Pharmacy Benefits: Cutting Costs, Improving Care.” The session explored how pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) shape prescription costs, where traditional models fall short, and how more transparent approaches may help employers rein in spending while improving access to care.Session moderator, Abigail Abrams, the director of content operations at Atria, set the stage with a reality many employers already recognize: pharmacy benefits have grown rapidly, often faster than other components of health care spend.Alissa Johnson, senior director of clinical strategy at SmithRx, pointed to several forces behind that trend. One is innovation. “One of the greatest things that have happened is tremendous innovation,” she said, noting that the United States develops “around 80% of the world’s new drugs.” New treatments have expanded what’s clinically possible, but often at a higher price.Another factor is where care is delivered. Many treatments that once required hospital or outpatient infusions are now available as self-administered injections or oral medications taken at home, says Johnson. While that shift can improve convenience and outcomes, it also moves more spending into the pharmacy benefit, increasing employers’ exposure to drug costs.The Transparency Problem in Traditional PBM ModelsAlissa Johnson, PharmD, MBA, BCPS, the senior director of clinical strategy at SmithRx, led the session (company photo)Traditional PBM pricing structures can obscure true costs. Johnson described the industry as one in which a single drug can have multiple price points, from list prices to discounted rates and negotiated rebates.“There’s just a lot of different mechanisms to not have the PBMs be transparent, or offer visibility into what the actual drug costs are,” she said. Vertical integration, where PBMs may also own pharmacies, specialty distributors, or have financial ties to manufacturers, can further complicate incentives.Johnson likened discount-based pricing to a misleading retail analogy. A drug might appear inexpensive because it’s offered at a steep percentage discount off a high list price, even if a lower net-cost alternative exists elsewhere. “What you really want to know is how much you’re paying at the end of the day,” she said.A recurring theme throughout the session was the importance of shifting from discount-based metrics to cost-based ones. Johnson encouraged employers to start by insisting on access to their own claims-level data. “Your data is yours,” she said.One simple but powerful metric, she says, is per-member-per-month (PMPM) pharmacy spend. By dividing total drug costs by the number of covered members, employers can track real spending trends without getting lost in rebate guarantees and contractual fine print.Johnson shared examples of employers that switched from legacy PBMs to more transparent models and saw significant reductions in both plan costs and employee out-of-pocket expenses. In one case, she said, PMPM costs dropped from $65.57 to $48, while average out-of-pocket spending fell from $12.90 to $6.Cost transparency isn’t just a financial issue—it also affects whether employees can access and adhere to their prescribed treatments. Johnson emphasized that when medications are unaffordable, people simply don’t take them, which can lead to worse health outcomes and higher medical costs over time. “If patients can’t afford their drugs, they won’t fill them and they won’t take them,” she said.She also addressed the role of utilization management tools like prior authorization. While such measures can be important safeguards, Johnson says that they can become unnecessary barriers when approval rates are effectively universal. In those cases, she says, removing prior authorization can reduce friction for both patients and providers without increasing risk.High-Cost Categories: GLP-1s, Biosimilars, and What’s NextJohnson also shared insights on drug categories drawing heightened employer attention, including GLP-1 medications for diabetes and weight loss. Johnson described them as “a drug class of interest for a long time,” given their effectiveness and growing list of potential indications. At the same time, she cautioned that broad utilization makes guardrails and data visibility essential.Another area of focus was biosimilars, lower-cost alternatives to biologic drugs used to treat conditions such as autoimmune diseases. Johnson urged employers to ask not just whether their PBM offers a biosimilar-first strategy, but how effectively it’s implemented.“Not all biosimilars are created equal,” she said, noting that some still cost thousands of dollars per month while others are available for a fraction of that price. Conversion rates, she added, can be a more meaningful measure than policy statements alone.Throughout the session, Johnson returned to a consistent message: employers don’t have to wait for regulatory reform or litigation outcomes to demand more clarity. Asking the right questions now, about data access, net costs, sourcing options, and reporting cadence, can reveal whether a PBM’s incentives are truly aligned with controlling spend and supporting employee health.As the webinar concluded, the message was less about any single solution and more about a shift in mindset. Transparency, Johnson suggested, isn’t an abstract ideal—it’s a practical tool for understanding where pharmacy dollars go and how benefits strategies can evolve to meet both financial and human needs.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, SmithRx, 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 nortonrsx/iStock)
Listening to the Employee Voice to Shape Smarter Total Rewards
BY Carrie Snider January 05, 2026Designing a total rewards program today is less about checking boxes and more about managing tradeoffs. Employers are trying to meet specific employee needs without fragmenting the workforce or leaving others feeling overlooked. At From Day One’s Los Angeles conference, that challenge took center stage as leaders discussed how listening more closely to employees can shape benefits that feel both targeted and inclusive.Jon Harold, head of sales and partnership success at SoFi at Work, underscored the importance of targeting benefits thoughtfully. “You do have to balance fairness with the actual needs of the business,” he said, “because at the end of the day, the business is here to make money and to grow.”Moderated by journalist Faith Pinho, Harold and a panel of other experts from across industries discussed how smarter total rewards start with the employee voice and extend to financial well-being, career growth, flexibility, and perks that truly matter.Targeted programs, like student loan repayment assistance, can deliver significant impact, says Harold. “Imagine coming out of college, you have $35,000 of student debt, and off the bat, your company is contributing $5,000 a year—that’s incredibly powerful and impactful,” he said. Yet, leaders often worry about perceptions among employees who don’t qualify. Harold points out the perspective many overlook: “Do you think those employees wish they had student debt so they could take advantage of it?”Successful organizations pair targeted benefits with offerings that reach all employees. “If you’re launching a financial wellness program, you can help with your student debt, talk with a financial coach, plan your estate, manage your credit—something that appeals to everyone,” Harold said.Offer Highly Valued, Specific PerksCreating a benefits package that resonates with employees means going beyond standard offerings. Arturo Arteaga, VP of total rewards at VCA, emphasizes that understanding employee needs firsthand is critical.“You need to keep contact with them all the time,” he said. “You need to know about them. You need to visit—in our case, we have close to 1,000 hospitals—talk to the CSR, talk to the bed techs, talk to the doctors and understand what they want.”Targeted perks can have a significant impact. For example, VCA’s associate pet discount, which allows employees to receive meaningful discounts on veterinary services, is by far the most appreciated benefit of the company. Similarly, professional development support, including PTO and funding for certifications, is highly valued by veterinarians and veterinary technicians. “What they appreciate the most is to have time and resources for continuous education,” Arteaga said. Panelists spoke about "Listening to the Employee Voice to Shape Smarter Total Rewards," at From Day One's Los Angeles conference Piloting new benefits helps manage cost and expectations, especially in large organizations. “Any benefit is expensive, and we need to be very careful about what we introduce and what we don’t introduce,” he said. For employees on their feet all day, VCA introduced a musculoskeletal treatment program after learning directly from staff about the physical toll of their work.Explore Innovative, Employee-Driven BenefitsModern total rewards strategies increasingly focus on flexibility and innovation, giving employees more control over how they use their benefits. Carol MacKinlay, chief HR officer at Pebl, says employees want options that let them manage their own lives.“People want to control their money,” she said. “They were willing to trade that risk for the reward,” she said, referring to a program where employees could trade bonuses for guaranteed salary increases.Gamification and creative engagement strategies can make benefits more meaningful. MacKinlay says. “People love it. We’re trying to customize, giving people fun things to do, reasons to participate,” she said, describing how compliance training and other programs are turned into competitions to drive participation.Forward-looking approaches also tap into emerging financial trends. “About 30% of employees want to get paid in crypto,” MacKinlay said, highlighting Pebl’s exploration of digital payment options to meet employee needs, particularly in regions with high inflation.Beyond financial benefits, time and feedback can serve as powerful rewards. Spot awards of time off recognize extra effort and reinforce work-life balance, while a structured, partially transparent feedback system gives employees insights into their performance. By offering benefits that employees can shape and control, organizations not only meet immediate needs but also position themselves for long-term engagement, satisfaction, and retention in an increasingly diverse and global workforce.Prioritize Development & Transparent Performance ConversationsIn today’s competitive talent landscape, benefits alone aren’t enough—how organizations handle performance and growth can be just as important. Jerrold Coakley, SVP of HR at Stater Bros. Markets, emphasized the value of clear, early conversations around remote work and career progression.“It’s far better to have that conversation early, although it’s uncomfortable,” he said, referring to discussions about whether certain roles can be performed remotely and how that may impact advancement.Coakley advocates for performance-based differentiation over perceived fairness. “We’re not here to be fair,” he said. “We’re trying to get the top talent in the top roles and pay them the top dollar.” HR leaders should be transparent about expectations, rewarding those who deliver and making career growth contingent on measurable contributions.Simplicity in benefits also drives impact. Programs that are easy to implement, such as time off, spot bonuses, or additional pay, provide tangible value without unnecessary complexity. “The more you can over-invest in areas you know you can execute, you’re going to find that it’s very beneficial for your employees and very easy for you to execute,” Coakley said.Perhaps most importantly, investing in employee development builds engagement and loyalty. “Development is the number one thing,” he said. “Invest your top talent, let them know how much they mean to you.” Growth opportunities, combined with clear expectations and transparent feedback, help employees feel valued and empowered, reinforcing both performance and long-term retention.Successful total rewards programs start with the employee voice. From financial wellness and meaningful perks to career development and innovative, employee-driven options, the key is listening and responding, panelists agreed. Thoughtful design, clear communication, and investment in growth create a culture where employees feel valued and motivated, driving engagement, retention, and long-term organizational success.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Building Resilience: Staying Agile Through Workforce Disruptions
BY Stephanie Reed January 05, 2026Agility in business is no longer optional. Organizations that adopt agile ways of working see measurable gains in operational performance, including speed, predictability, and target achievement, while also improving employee engagement through clearer missions, greater empowerment, and stronger customer focus. But agility comes with constant change, requiring organizations to build real responsiveness and resilience.“How do I survive in this world where change is coming hard and fast, creating a real sense of loss on a number of levels, and my response to it may not always be productive and constructive?” asked Kenneth Matos Ph.D, director of market insights at HiBob. Matos spoke during a From Day One webinar about “Building Resilience: Staying Agile Through Workforce Disruptions.” Matos brings psychological expertise to the design of agile organizations, offering HR leaders, managers, and teams practical tools to adapt and thrive amid constant change. Drawing on organizational psychology and his experience at HiBob, he helps managers and employees drive sustainable growth and productivity.Creating Structural SupportBuilding an agile culture and organizational resilience requires structural support, says Matos. This includes company policy and managerial practices. You want your organization to remove friction so employees can adapt easily, he says. Matos suggests starting with clear guiding principles rather than rigid policies. Policies should provide context by explaining their purpose, not just prescribing what to do and what not to do. He also emphasizes the value of scalable platforms for cross-team collaboration, which are often more cost-effective and impactful than investing in single-purpose technologies. Scalable tools can expand or contract as needs change, making it easier to evolve processes and communication without being constrained by the technology itself.Kenneth Matos, Ph.D., the director of market insights, HCM at HiBob, led the session (company photo)Another way to boost structural support is through HR incorporating flexibility into workflows and employee journeys. “It might make a lot of sense to have a meeting at the end of the day to close out what you’ve been doing, but it also might get in the way of having a really diverse workforce of people who might have caregiving responsibilities,” he said. Creating internal marketplaces for projects and learning can reduce the need to hire externally by making it easier to redeploy existing talent. Matos also points to job architecture as a critical area for structural support, emphasizing that it should be treated as an ongoing, evolving process rather than a fixed framework. “Are these roles still making sense as we launch a new product? Are these roles still making sense if we go into a new area or we’re shrinking as an organization?”Learning and development should also become demand-driven. Matos suggests finding people who want to complete specific tasks and giving them the learning resources to fulfill those tasks. This makes new skills more likely to stick. Additionally, performance systems should be reviewed more frequently. An effective system has the rewards and structures that check against what employees want to accomplish. Lastly, says Matos, organizations must adopt agile budgeting. “I think one of the mistakes that HR often makes is that we don’t realize how much of what we do is defined by things like the financial process,” Matos said. “So the fact that budgets get reviewed once a year sets the limits for the reward process that we do and how we think about learning.”The Importance of Personal DevelopmentPersonal development helps employees shift from change resistance as an instinctual response, says Matos. For example, when asked how teams can decompress during uncertainty, Matos emphasizes that the key aspect is allowing people to be heard using feedback.Inviting teams to reflect on their current challenges, successes, and what could be done differently helps replace doubt with clarity and confidence. Managers play a critical role by supporting personal development and normalizing role evolution, celebrating past accomplishments while reinforcing that employees are resilient, adaptable, and capable of change.“Asking people, say on a weekly basis, ‘what did you learn this week? What did you learn this month?’ Can just help them stop and go, ‘Right, I’m supposed to still be learning things, not just executing this job over and over again like a cog in a machine.’”Establishing a shared narrative can ease transitions by encouraging open conversations between employees, leaders, and peers about stepping into new roles. Previews, pilots, and trials also help employees gradually acclimate to organizational change. Most importantly, supporting employees’ livelihoods requires honest discussions about their role in the organization, future growth opportunities, and where they envision their careers heading.These discussions should reinforce resilience and adaptability as positive growth indicators. “Markers of an agile workforce is that they have fluid professional narratives,” Matos said. “They don’t see themselves as bound to a particular title or job track, but as having a collection of skills that they can apply to a variety of different purposes and goals that change with the context around them.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, HiBob, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses. (Photo by NanoStockk/iStock)
The Agentic HR Operating Model: Moving Beyond Chatbots to AI-First HR
BY Ade Akin January 02, 2026AI is generating both excitement and concern in the workplace, and especially in HR. Tools like Wisq’s AI HR generalist, Harper, promise to automate tasks and slash workloads by more than 80%, yet many organizations find their AI experiments deliver only incremental results instead of the transformative change they hoped for, says Clayton Holz, the head of product at the agentic HR platform Wisq.AI can transform HR departments if deployed pragmatically, Holz shared during a From Day One webinar about “The Agentic HR Operating Model: Moving Beyond Chatbots to AI-First HR.” Success requires proactively navigating around fundamental limitations, redesigning processes, and rethinking organizational structure, he says. “You are going to have to do work,” Holz said. “But I can clearly see a world in which, in the HR domain, AI is doing a lot of the tier zero, tier one, maybe some of the tier two work, and then augmenting your work further up the pyramid.”The Reality Check on AI AgentsTransforming HR departments with AI starts with a clear understanding of the technology’s current capabilities and limitations. Holz outlines several fundamental constraints HR leaders must work around. First, AI models are probabilistic, not deterministic. “A model with no supporting safety algorithm is going to be consistent anywhere from 60 to 90% of the time,” he said, adding that out-of-the-box AI tools like Copilot often perform worse on HR-specific tasks. Clayton Holz, the head of product at Wisq, led the webinar (company photo)Second, artificial intelligence struggles with complex, multi-turn instructions, sometimes leading to “hallucinations.” Models are trained to be sycophantic, which conflicts with HR’s need to be consistently fair and empathetic. “AI is more than willing to go ahead and make a decision on behalf of your organization that might not be present in the source material,” Holz said. Third, AI doesn’t magically drive behavior change. For example, AI can’t do much if employees aren’t motivated to create individual development plans. “AI is not suddenly going to change that motivational gap and change people's behavior,” Holz said. “It might make the experience of doing it different and better, but it's not necessarily going to change their behavior.”Holz advises that the best use cases for artificial intelligence are scenarios where “people just keep doing what they were doing before, and AI is there so they don’t have to change any behavior at all.”Building the Bridge With ITA major hurdle many HR teams face is getting their IT departments on board with the decision to give AI a larger role. Holz says HR teams should be proactive and data-driven when communicating with IT departments. “Vague asks are going to be difficult for them to prioritize,” he said. Holz advises HR leaders to articulate their needs to IT teams using three key dimensions: care (employee experience), compliance (risk reduction), and cost (time savings).He recommends building bridges by helping IT teams to understand the unique nuances of HR work, such as the rules governing a leave of absence. “The best examples that I’ve seen, honestly, are when someone in IT has recently gone on a leave of absence, because then they have empathy for some of the things that you’re dealing with,” Holz said.Redesigning HR Processes for AIThe core of Holz’s advice for HR leaders centers on the methodologies used to redesign processes for the implementation of AI. He suggests a hands-on workshop approach, starting with a subject-matter expert interview to map out multi-step processes like handling a request for promotion in detail, including the back-and-forth and waiting periods. Once that’s out of the way, the next step is to codify each step of the process. This systematic breakdown makes the workflow shape visible. “This is a great opportunity for redesign,” Holz said. “We’re looking for places where we can remove, combine, reorder, and standardize steps.”Finally, each step of each process should be evaluated and placed on a two-by-two grid. One axis measures the level of risk involved if the step is incorrectly done, while the other measures the amount of human judgement required. Doing so creates a clear opportunity map for applying AI to processes:Low-risk, low-judgment tasks: Examples include tasks like sending a reminder email or retrieving a standard policy document. These are prime candidates for full automation.High-risk, high-judgment tasks: These are important tasks like granting final approval on a sensitive employee relations case. Such tasks should be primarily handled by human experts, while AI serves as an assistant that helps to curate information or generate drafts. Tasks in the middle: These include tasks such as the initial assessment of a promotion request against set criteria. Most of these tasks can be handled by AI, but a human review step should be built in for quality assurance. For example, in the case of a promotion request, the approval routine might be automated, while a human communicates the final decision to the employee after evaluating the AI’s recommendation. Preparing Policies for an AI TeammateHolz says company policies must be AI-ready to operate the technology effectively. Ambiguous policies that are confusing to humans will be even more problematic for artificial intelligence. He highlights some of the most common issues organizations face, including outdated handbooks, over-reliance on jargon, and vast amounts of unwritten “tribal knowledge” governing discretionary decisions. Holz recommends archiving old policy documents, using plain language, and running policies by focus groups consisting of new employees to test for clarity. “If they don’t get it, it’s likely that AI is also not going to get it consistently,” he said. He also recommends codifying the unwritten rules that govern discretionary decisions, like what counts as a “close family member” for bereavement leave. This codification is essential to offload repetitive work to an AI agent. One of the most profound shifts in attitudes Holz proposed regarding AI is to view it as a team member, instead of a tool. “They’re going to need a manager, they’re going to need onboarding, they’re going to need supervision, they’re going to need performance feedback,” he said.Holz predicts the slow, consensus-driven policy management model will hinder the effectiveness of AI systems adopted and sees forward-thinking companies shifting toward a hub-and-spoke model with clear, centralized policy owners. “This is going to be a big [shift], allowing you to move much more quickly and get more out of AI going forward,” he added.The Future of HR Service DeliveryHolz envisions a not-too-distant future where AI handles the majority of HR service delivery, freeing humans up for tasks that require more human skills. “I think all of [those transactional requests] could be done in part or entirely by AI,” he said. The shift toward AI-driven HR may also encourage organizations to standardize policies that were once open to broad interpretation. “I could see policies becoming more black and white, candidly, or black and white for large shares of the population, so that decisions can be made in a more programmatic and consistent way,” he said.Holz’s message to HR leaders is that AI has the potential to transform processes, but that requires a proactive, process-oriented, and collaborative approach. The teammate of the future is waiting to be onboarded. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Wisq, for sponsoring this webinar. Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by CL Stock/Shutterstock)
Cultivating Psychological Flexibility: Thriving Through Change in 2026
BY Ade Akin January 02, 2026“You can always count change as a constant,” Nicole Conley, associate director of employee experience at ibex, said during a From Day One webinar. But change doesn’t have to be a setback. Psychological flexibility is the skill that separates teams that crumble under the pressure created by disruptive technologies from those that successfully adapt to their new realities. Conley was joined by a panel of speakers during a session about “The Power of Adaptability: Thriving Through Change in 2026,” to share concrete ways leaders can cultivate adaptability in themselves and the teams they lead. Laura Magnuson, LAMFT and VP of clinical engagement at Talkspace, defines psychological flexibility as the ability to be present and open to difficult experiences, and take actions aligned with your values, rather than getting stuck in rigid, unhelpful patterns like avoidance or impulsivity.Magnuson traces the concept of psychological flexibility to acceptance and commitment therapy, pointing out shared philosophies like staying in the present, accepting uncomfortable feelings, and taking action. The Importance of Leadership Modeling Adaptability All four panelists agreed that leaders must exhibit the behaviors they want to see in team members. Jamie Smith Hubbard, the senior director of talent management at Compass Group, described three layers of connection her team uses: monthly company check-ins, weekly peer gatherings, and what she calls “Friday Focus,” a block of time designated for team members to catch up with each other or address personal needs. Sarah Begley, the VP of member content for Atria, moderated the session among leaders (photo by From Day One)“We use that time to really make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves,” she said, noting that such rituals help to normalize downtime without negatively impacting productivity. Tools for Navigating ChangeKristina Gardiner, the senior director of talent management at Help at Home, says transparency is the most effective tool for reducing change-induced anxiety. “A better informed soldier is a better performing soldier,” she said, borrowing from her military experience to explain how sharing the “why” behind decisions helps people connect the dots, making them more adaptable. Gardiner’s team replaced mass email blasts with conversations led by team leaders and small group sessions, so employees could ask questions in real time. It’s the small moments that matter, according to Conley. Psychological flexibility shows up in everyday moments, like checking in, naming what’s hard, and pausing before reacting, she says. She writes down everything to separate emotions from real issues when she feels overwhelmed, and returns to solve the problem with a calmer mind. That five-minute pause is what helps managers respond effectively to change instead of reacting irrationally.The panelists agreed that behavioral interviews using realistic scenarios best reveal adaptability, often more than personality tests. They also cautioned that chasing too many initiatives creates fatigue, urging leaders to push back and focus on the highest-impact changes.Navigating Generational Challenges and AI’s ImpactLeaders should be attuned to how different team members deal with change. Magnuson points out a Talkspace survey that found Gen Zers are uniquely self-critical when they fail. “As leaders, first being aware that this is something that might be happening with this younger group of employees, and figuring out how we can help to coach and support them to accept failure and take on that growth mindset is crucial,” she said.One major source of workplace uncertainty is artificial intelligence. While AI is expected to open up new opportunities, it also sparks fear. The panelists agreed that leaders should remain measured and human-centric when addressing these concerns. “We’re exploring different AI platforms and doing smaller pilots,” Hubbard added as she stressed how irreplaceable the human element is. Gardiner suggests transparent communication about industry “headwinds and tailwinds,” while Conley recommends empowering employees to see AI as a tool that helps them “work smarter, not harder.”Why Adaptability Drives Business Performance Psychological flexibility is often the difference between organizations that turn change into a ladder to propel growth and those that are hindered by it. Companies that can pivot quickly will capture opportunities at the speed required by technological change and shifting markets, while those that are slow to adapt will miss out on these opportunities, says Magnuson. “If you don’t have a team that’s really nimble and ready to move and pivot, you as a business might lose out on some opportunities,” she said. The demise of Blockbuster highlights the immense cost of failing to adapt. The defunct video rental giant once dominated its market with thousands of stores and a widely recognized brand that had become a household name. However, when confronted with the disruptions brought by digital streaming and a DVD-by-mail model pioneered by Netflix, Blockbuster’s leadership clung to its brick-and-mortar blueprint and once-lucrative late-fee revenue model. They even passed on the opportunity to acquire Netflix for $50 million. Netflix is now valued at around $435 billion, while many Gen Zers have never heard of Blockbuster. Ultimately, adaptability doesn’t just give companies a competitive advantage; it's necessary for their survival. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talkspace, for sponsoring this webinar. Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by JuSun/iStock)
Connection as the Catalyst for Both Well-Being and Performance
BY Carrie Snider January 01, 2026The facts are striking: 1 in 5 employees worldwide feel lonely. “We’re dealing with a new generation of workers who are having a hard time connecting,” said Constance Jones, news anchor at NBC 6. Jones moderated an executive panel discussion titled, “The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Well-Being and Innovation,” at From Day One’s Miami conference. “It’s up to us to create environments where not only can our employees strive and do better, but also they can be productive,” she said. The panel of leaders explored how human-centered leadership can combat isolation while driving innovation. The message of the session was clear: well-being is about building trust, empathy, and meaningful connection in the modern workplace.Human-Centered Leadership and CultureWhen an organization decides to make wellness a priority, it can then shape daily decisions and leadership behaviors across the company.According to panelist Zoe Hernandez Wolfe, VP of talent management & development at Baptist Health, human-centered leadership is a lived commitment that shapes how employees are supported and heard. “We believe very strongly that our culture, our values, define who we are,” she said.Central to this approach is empathy. Wolfe emphasizes “leading with empathy” and recognizing employees as whole people navigating complex lives, not just contributors to productivity. Baptist Health reinforces this through frequent employee surveys that go beyond engagement metrics to ask questions like, “Do you feel cared about as a person?” The responses directly inform leadership action.Panelists spoke about "The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Well-Being and Innovation" at From Day One's Miami conferencePrograms like Code Lavender further reflect this culture of care, giving employees space to pause, decompress, and receive emotional support during overwhelming moments. Ultimately, Wolfe says, connection—between leaders, teams, and caregivers—is what sustains both employee well-being and organizational resilience.Key Well-Being Trends Shaping 2026After all employees and organizations have been through since the pandemic, there could be good things coming soon. Panelist Christine Muldoon, SVP of marketing and strategy at WebMD Health Services, sees 2026 as a turning point for more intentional, holistic well-being strategies. “The evolution of well-being is essentially happening,” she said, as organizations adapt to post-pandemic realities.One major shift is a deeper focus on holistic well-being, recognizing the interconnected nature of physical, mental, social, financial, and work health. Women’s health, particularly menopause, is also gaining overdue attention. “It’s a very silent term in the workplace,” Muldoon said.Another trend is using organizational care as a strategic advantage. “It’s not enough to offer well-being,” she said. Employees want to see care embedded into culture, not just benefits. Organizations are also rethinking ROI, expanding success metrics beyond cost savings to include retention, culture, and health outcomes.Wellness as Human Connection and AuthenticityFor panelist Melissa Montgomery, VP of HR at Lennar, wellness begins with authentic human connection. Lennar’s goal to become the healthiest company in America goes beyond programs to focus on helping employees show up as their best selves at work and at home.Montgomery says well-being is built when people feel valued. “When somebody knows what my goals are at work,” she said, “and somebody knows who I am as a person.” That trust is especially important for early-career and Gen Z employees navigating workplace expectations for the first time.Strong leadership, she says, requires clarity and intention, especially when giving feedback or coaching. Wellness depends on leaders being good humans and taking time to connect beyond digital tools. Sometimes, the most powerful support starts with a simple question: “How can I best support you?”Across industries, one theme stood out: connection is the catalyst for both well-being and performance. Whether through values-driven leadership, holistic strategies, or authentic relationships, organizations that prioritize people are better positioned to thrive. When leaders listen, care, and connect, well-being becomes a shared experience and a driver of resilience and innovation.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Measurably Improving Culture: It Takes a Shared Language, Culture Skills and Analytics
BY Paul Kersey December 31, 2025As a former HR attorney, Janine Yancey says that she hasn’t actually run into that many truly bad people. There are a handful of “bad eggs,” as she puts it, but most of the cases she handled involved decent folks who were struggling to manage workplace demands and the many different personality types they have on their teams.“It’s just people being people. They have different perspectives on situations. They’re optimizing for different outcomes. They’re thinking about different things. They have different communication styles, which leads to conflict,” she said. “It’s just hard sometimes to interact.”Her background led her to think of corporate culture a little differently; it's not just the history and values and mission, it’s the shared language and people skills that a company promotes. A healthy corporate culture can head off many workplace issues, and companies can instill that healthy culture intentionally. Now, the founder and CEO of Emtrain, an online compliance and culture training company, Yancey shared insights on measurably improving culture during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s LA conference.Focusing on Actions, Not PeopleLeaders often assume good intent, Yancey says. But they also need to recognize how employees’ moods and pressures shape performance and interactions. Even strong managers are affected by stress and tight deadlines, and conflicts can arise between coworkers who are simply trying to do their best.Janine Yancey, the founder & CEO of Emtrain, led the thought leadership spotlight With that in mind, Yancey says HR professionals should avoid categorizing people as bad actors. It’s more constructive to focus on specific actions or habits that cause problems. When you do that, you can be more clinical and less judgmental. Interventions can take the form of teaching skills rather than correcting character faults. “You’re not judging somebody and calling them a toxic person or toxic manager, you’re saying, hey, you’ve got an area of opportunity, and we can help develop this skill a little bit.” Yancey describes a color scale for workplace interactions: green for those handled well, yellow for moments shaped by stress or bad habits. As an attorney and compliance specialist, she distinguishes yellow from orange, which involves legally protected groups and potential litigation. Red marks situations that are clearly illegal.New Issues Create Workplace StressEmtrain has been gathering employee feedback through its training program, and Yancey notes trends HR should watch for. One key trend is generational differences: younger workers prioritize work-life balance more than older employees.For example, Yancey describes a hypothetical law firm meeting where a senior attorney scolds a younger associate for being unavailable after hours on a time-sensitive project. Younger workers are more likely to view this as out of line, valuing work-life balance, which can heighten conflicts over after-hours availability and task flexibility.Another potential conflict arises with AI implementation. While AI can save time, such as generating programs previously done by junior tech staff, it can also disrupt job roles and interdepartmental relations. IT workers may find themselves verifying AI-generated code rather than creating it.With AI, departments will work together in different ways, says Yancey. And some workers will inevitably begin to question their value to the company—what is the computer coder’s role now when AI can write programs itself based on specifications it gets from executives? This confusion and insecurity will place new stress on employees, and HR professionals will need to be ready to deal with the fallout, she says. Building a Culture With Soft SkillsProactive leadership can help a company build a culture with a shared language, a common set of values, and soft skills, all of which minimize conflicts and make it easier for workers to resolve them on their own. As a litigator, Yancey’s own experience was that much of the time she was coaching employees about people skills. She suggests that companies start by creating their own matrix of social habits that best serve their employees. Emtrain’s own skills matrix is based on four central values: ethics, respect, inclusion, and belonging. “If you have a really strong culture of soft skills, compliance becomes a non-issue,” she said.Yancey suggests embedding these skills in regular compliance training. Additionally, tailored programs, especially online, can both reinforce culture and gather anonymous employee feedback, giving leaders insights to prevent conflicts and spot potential issues.“We’re all works in progress, trying to do better,” Yancey said. “As we practice with intentionality, then our actions start developing into skills.” A well-designed training program can help employees develop the skills they need to excel, and help your company develop the positive culture it needs to adapt and grow.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Emtrain, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Paul Kersey is a former attorney and freelance writer based in Chicago, IL.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
How People Analytics Can Give HR Leaders a Window Into Employee Experience
BY Katie Chambers December 22, 2025Most HR leaders agree that employee engagement is central to a healthy workplace. But is it necessary to constantly measure it? “The reason we’re asking about engagement isn’t because it looks good on a scorecard,” said Michelle Seidel, Human Capital Client Leader, Aon, in a panel conversation at From Day One’s recent Los Angeles conference. “It’s because engagement is linked to productivity. It’s linked to customer service. It’s linked to employee attrition, attraction, and retention.” While people analytics is sometimes viewed as esoteric or intrusive, the evolving field offers HR professionals new tools to understand worker sentiment, values, and skills. It can be used to spot trends in worker retention, predict candidate success, understand employee engagement, optimize benefits, or discover patterns in employee health and well-being. But what are the guardrails that need to be set up to safeguard trust, privacy, and corporate values? The panel explored how, when used thoughtfully, people analytics can help forecast larger future-of-work trends and employee expectations.The Benefit of Real-Time AnalyticsThe old employee-survey model is no longer effective, says Andrew Dufresne, head of HR Operations and Employee Experience, North America, UST, a global transformation company specializing in AI-powered tech and engineering. By the time HR can finish analyzing a traditional annual survey, the data is already many months old. “We’ve moved towards more pulse surveys and real-time engagement,” he said, citing an internal company platform that can track feedback on all aspects of the employee experience, such as hiring, retiring, or getting a promotion. “We’re collecting that feedback as those processes are happening.” His organization also partners with outside companies like Great Place to Work and Top Employers Institute for further benchmarking. Surveys don’t have to be complex. “I know of organizations who are using really simple emoji surveys, where you just click the happy face or the sad face [and] you have immediate feedback. You can respond to it in hours or days, versus the 90 days that’s typical from a traditional survey,” Seidel said. She says sentiment scraping, such as using AI to grab data from review sites like Glassdoor, can also help identify gaps and strengths. It’s important to be specific with your intentions as you craft survey questions. “A huge component is ensuring that these surveys are designed strategically, so that we’re getting the information that we really want, which is how engaged is somebody versus how satisfied [they] are,” said Brian Padilla, SVP, HR business partner, for Lionsgate. “[Our surveys are] designed to assess engagement, and then to also point to the reasons why someone might not be engaged. Maybe they don’t have a clear understanding of how their role fits into the bigger picture, or they don’t feel supported by their manager.” Intention—and clear communication—can also help keep HR from overstepping in their data collection and becoming too invasive. “How do you get somebody to want to give you information? We’re asking for things like self-identification surveys and things where we’re required to report on it, but people don’t necessarily trust that that information is going to be used in a way that’s ethical,” Padilla said. He suggests “having those conversations with people [and] showing them how the process works, what the end product looks like, and what actually goes out into the world.”The executive-panel speakers on people analytics at From Day One’s December conference in Los AngelesRachyll Tenny, chief talent officer for people strategy and organizational impact for Capstone Partners, and investment-banking firm, summed it up: “Trust, transparency, and context.” With considerate framing, organizations can build a culture of trust. Padilla shared that a recent Lionsgate self-identification survey with sensitive questions regarding sexual orientation and parental status had a 90% response rate because it was communicated with intention and care. Building a Pathway Forward “Data [can] be used to be both prescriptive and predictive,” said moderator Stacy Perman, Staff Writer, the Los Angeles Times, both identifying gaps and providing proposed solutions. Added Seidel: “When we look at the survey results in the data, it tells us what’s going on, why it might be happening, what we can do to fix it. Sometimes it even tells us how to prioritize those issues and when we need to fix it by.” Traditional data-collection modes are too fragmented; AI can pull everything together and generate a nuanced plan.AI can be deployed to dive deeper into the data on hand, which is especially important as the working world generally transitions from a role-based to a skill-based model. “[AI] can look at skill gaps before they become performance gaps, because that’s really when it hits you hardest,” said Rebecca Warren, talent-centered transformation leader for Eightfold, an AI-powered talent-intelligence platform. Analyzing skills in this way can also help with talent acquisition and retention. Warren noted that she started at the company in talent acquisition, then moved to customer success, then marketing and talent transformation—all because she was invited to apply based on her skillset. “Tying hiring, development, and skill gaps to what the business is trying to achieve makes all the difference, instead of trying to plug gaps in a in a leaky bucket,” she said. And of course, AI comes with its own ethical concerns, leading again to that need for transparency, communication, and compliance. “What we talk about inside of Eightfold is, ‘We are responsible and explainable AI,’ so everything that we do is tracked, and we can go back and say, ‘This is what happened.’ So if there is something that wasn’t handled correctly, we can go back and look at it more quickly than if we had a manual process or if we weren’t tracking all of those things,” Warren said. The organization also utilizes an ethics council. Going forward, organizations can rely on AI-powered people analytics to solve some of their toughest conundrums. Seidel said, “If I could use data and analytics to achieve one key thing, it would be to answer the question more effectively and with more precision: ‘Where is the best place for our organization to invest the next dollar in our workforce for the greatest return on investment?’” 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, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Rules Are Being Rewritten: How Bold Leaders Win in the AI Era
BY Ade Akin December 22, 2025The time between technological revolutions has shrunk from 50 years to a couple of decades, and AI is now rewriting what work looks like faster than organizations can adapt. The rapid pace of new technologies that significantly impact how companies operate is creating massive skill gaps that traditional hiring and training methods are ineffective at addressing. Recruiting and learning divisions within organizations are now coming together to improve talent acquisition and address skill gaps from within. Tigran Sloyan, the CEO and co-founder of CodeSignal, urges companies to move beyond passive learning and resume screening, and embrace AI-powered, hands-on learning programs and scalable assessments. “You want to answer the question, ‘What can we do? How can we leverage this, and how can it be good for humanity?’” Sloyan said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s LA conference. The Historical Pace of Change And Why This Time Is DifferentSloyan started his presentation by comparing the speed of technological breakthroughs since the development of the internet to the pace of tech advancement several centuries ago, when the printing press was invented. “It used to take us 50 years to experience a new, dramatic technological shift,” he said. “Forty years ago, we didn’t have web developers. Thirty years ago, we didn’t have cloud engineers. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have mobile engineers.” Each shift created new jobs and skills, but organizations had more time to adapt.Today, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which has only been around for a few years, are transforming workplaces, garnering over 700 million active weekly users. Sloyan says the challenge is leveraging new technologies like AI to “transform how we find, discover, and develop skills that will shape this future.”Closing Skills Gaps With Hands-On, AI-Powered LearningTigran Sloyan, CEO & co-founder of CodeSignal, led the thought leadership spotlight Sloyan introduced CodeSignal as an “AI-native skills intelligence platform” built on the principle that people learn best when performing tasks. “Think about when you learn how to ride a bike, how you learn to drive a car. You get behind the wheel, and you actually try and practice,” he said. The same applies to job skills, but scaling hands-on learning programs has historically been challenging.Sloyan shared the example of Dropbox, which faced considerable AI skill gaps across its workforce. Dropbox’s executives recognized it couldn’t hire its way out of its problem because the skills required were too new to be widely available. The solution was to partner with CodeSignal to build a Gen AI Skills Academy. The academy offers employees three options: AI use lessons for non-technical roles like marketing, AI integration classes for building products using existing tools, and AI creation courses that teach how to build new AI systems. Sloyan says the key to the success of Dropbox’s Gen AI Skills Academy is its practice-based nature. He demonstrated a model where learners first practice prompting an AI model, then are tasked with teaching a simulated coworker named “Nova” how to do it. “Another way you learn well is by teaching other people,” he said.CodeSignal’s AI doesn’t only simulate conversations, it also provides personalized feedback through its “Cosmo” system. “Practice without feedback is not very helpful,” Sloyan said, comparing it to learning to drive a vehicle without an instructor. “With generative AI, we’re making it possible to actually scale this to an entire organization.” Dropbox applied this to thousands of employees, enabling them to learn, practice, and get feedback at scale.How AI Interviewers Are Opening Up the Hiring FunnelSloyan also shared how Coinbase created a more efficient hiring process thanks to CodeSignal’s AI interviewers that scale top-of-funnel recruiter screens to nearly 100% of its candidate pool. Coinbase had previously struggled sorting through a flood of applicants with its limited recruiting team, leading to as many as 95% of job applicants never hearing back from a human.“Almost every candidate that applies actually hears back and actually gets to have a conversation to talk about their skills,” Sloyan said. He showed a demo of “Milo,” an AI interviewer CodeSignal uses in its hiring process, interviewing a candidate.A common concern is that AI interviews might feel impersonal, but Sloyan says candidate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “Candidates are saying, ‘This is one of the best interviews that I’ve actually done,’” he said. The AI can be customized for tone to align with an organization’s legal and brand guidelines. Sloyan says the next step is moving toward AI avatars to create an even more immersive experience. He playfully demonstrated the concept with a candidate interview conducted by an AI avatar of Santa for an “elf” position.A Future Built on Skills, Not Just CredentialsSloyan kept returning to a central theme during his presentation: The future belongs to organizations that can discover and develop new skills proactively. AI is the accelerant, but the solution is timeless; learning by performing tasks reinforced by feedback. It’s the necessary response to a world where new jobs are created by new technologies every decade. “Technology keeps on moving faster and faster. Humans do not,” Sloyan said. “We’re still the same humans, and it’s this technology that needs to help us go through this process faster and be on the winning side of history.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Technology and Talent: How HR Leaders Are Future-Proofing the Workforce
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 22, 2025What does it take to turn a workplace into a learning machine? During a panel discussion at From Day One’s December virtual conference on the future of work, executives made one thing clear: it’s not about programs or policies, it’s about empowering employees to take charge of their growth.First, organizations that support continuous learning make it easy to access training for both technical and durable skills, especially for what Becky Karsh, VP of talent and growth at F5, calls critical roles. That means personal development plans, plus the ability for employees to nominate themselves for learning and development opportunities.Second, they embrace internal mobility. “Now that you have employees learning new skills, it’s going to make them more marketable for more open roles in the company,” said Melanie Stave, SVP, NA career development & mobility practice leader, at LHH. “Ensuring that that is an avenue for movement is key.” And finally, when it comes time to fill open roles, those companies look at internal talent first. “I really think it falls to senior leadership,” Stave added. “They really need to champion this mindset.”HCSC’s VP of talent solutions Shannon Fuller backs what he calls a “train-your-replacement” culture. “When you have a replacement and successor in place, it’s much easier to move talent across the organization,” he said. At HCSC, employees are encouraged to lead their own development, thinking not only of who will take their place, but also where they will go next. “Oftentimes, we’re waiting on our manager and we’re waiting on goals,” he said. “I encourage people to drive their own car.”Giselle Battley, global head of emerging talent & learning at Yahoo, suggests that organizations host internal career weeks where employees can meet with recruiters about open roles within the company. “Especially in large organizations, you often don’t know what opportunities are available,” said Battley. Events like this give employees the chance to move fluidly throughout the organization, building their skills while strengthening the company’s overall talent base.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, journalist and From Day One contributing editor, moderated the session about "Technology and Talent: How HR Leaders Are Future-Proofing the Workforce" (photo by From Day One)Future-proofing doesn’t always require changing roles. It can also mean short-term projects in different departments, which satisfy curiosity, strengthen employee networks, and add cross-functional skills to the organization’s reserves.Of course, such programs demand time and attention from HR. To make them sustainable, Stave recommended offering plenty of self-serve resources, setting clear goals and timeframes for temporary projects, and making it clear where completing these projects and acquiring new skills can lead.Skill development isn’t limited to technical capabilities like AI proficiency or data engineering–it also includes durable skills, like how to lead a team. “I don’t think we’re moving away from the fundamentals,” said Karsh at F5. “In fact, I think we need to double down on them. Leadership is an art that needs to be honed like a craft.”Panelists noted that building skill-based programs requires knowing what skills already exist within the organization. “The problem in doing this kind of infrastructure work is that the right hand often doesn’t talk to the left,” said Kason Morris, global director of skills-based organization strategy at Merck. “If we’re democratizing access to opportunities, we need to speak in a language of experiences and skills,” he said. That means, for example, not letting a university degree stand in for actual abilities.In fact, HCSC is in the process of removing degree requirements, focusing instead on the skills people have–whether built up in school, on the job, or elsewhere, says Fuller. Morris says we’re moving toward a time when conversational AIs will help not only develop skills, but identify them as well. “That’s intelligence for the employee and intelligence for the business,” he said.Continuous learning isn’t just a strategy, it’s a mindset and a culture. By empowering employees to own their growth, embrace new challenges, and share knowledge across the organization, companies can not only keep pace with change but lead their industries.“We all started this journey right by being scared of AI,” Stave said. “But after all the research and the personal benefits we’ve seen–it’s just so nice to hear all the good stuff that’s coming.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by EyeEm Mobile GmbH/iStock)
AI Disrupts Staffing: The Inevitable Transformation
BY Stephanie Reed December 19, 2025AI may have entered HR through efficiency, but it’s staying for something bigger. As tools grow more sophisticated, their role is expanding from automating tasks to shaping how organizations understand people and make hiring decisions. According to John H. Chuang, CEO of Skill, recruiting is where that shift is becoming most visible.During a live thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Miami conference, Chuang spoke about the advanced capabilities of the latest AI technology and how it will eventually be integrated into every department in an organization. One way recruiting is being revolutionized is by AI processing voluminous data, he says. A recruiter alone is less efficient at digesting information from thousands of potential recruits. “I would argue that human beings are actually sort of not qualified to do the initial stage of sourcing because they cannot absorb data,” Chuang said. “What can absorb data? Computers. What can now understand computers? AI.” Beyond processing information at scale, AI also enables better matches by identifying specialized skills and technical nuances of roles that recruiters themselves may not be deeply familiar with, he says. For example, some clients are seeking very specific roles, such as cardiologists, medical coders, and construction supervisors. “Are you telling me that the average recruiter is going to know all the lingo and all the technical details in all these areas that are completely dispersed? No, they won’t. But AI can. And AI does know these things.”Another way AI is reshaping recruiting is through language. While recruiters may only speak one language, AI can process resumes across many, removing a common barrier to global hiring. Once the technology is properly trained, it also allows recruiting to scale efficiently, helping talent teams identify the best candidates faster. The return on investment is clear: the cost of an additional AI-led search is significantly lower than a human-led one, making large-scale recruiting far more cost-effective, says Chuang. John H. Chuang, CEO of Skill, led the thought leadership spotlight At Skill, Chuang described how the company is moving toward a recruiter-less model, driven by advances in AI. Agentic AI, an evolved form of the technology, acts as an intelligent assistant for processes that require flexibility, context, and real-time decision-making. “Recruiting will be absolutely unrecognizable in three years,” he said. A 2025 Deloitte report highlights how agentic AI is reshaping workplace processes, from understanding context and user intent to supporting scenario planning, forecasting, and risk assessment. It can even make autonomous decisions in areas like economic forecasting and competitive analysis. Chuang recalled that during beta testing ahead of a January release, the team tasked agentic AI with finding a customer solution engineer, and the system took action on its own.The team set a goal to find a customer solution engineer. Agentic AI took action on its own.“We didn’t tell it what to do at all.” The technology created a strategy: create two job ads. One defined the technical aspects of the position, while the other highlighted the customer service aspect more. The system ran the job ads, continuously optimizing underperforming postings through four iterations as more matches came in. Once it reached a sufficient pool of candidates, the results were sent to a recruiter. “Guess how much time all the strategy development, the posting of jobs on five job boards, one’s internal database, and four iterations, how long this took? This took eight minutes.”While agentic AI may “supercharge” talent acquisition, Chuang emphasized that people remain essential to the process. Recruiters won’t have to read through too many documents. Instead, they can focus on interviews and negotiation.HR’s new role will be to help transform the organization, emphasizing the partnership between people and technology. Put simply, computers will accomplish what computers are best at, and people will accomplish what people are best at. “AI can do amazing things. And you haven’t even seen anything yet. It’s coming, and it’s going to be more amazing than you’ve ever seen.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Skill, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)