Comprehensive Workplace Wellness: Stopping Burnout Before It Starts
BY Jessica Swenson July 09, 2026Employee burnout can quietly erode engagement, productivity, and performance, especially in high-pressure fields such as investment banking, says Stephanie Chiodi, head of benefits at Moelis & Company. That’s the reason her organization monitors utilization of PTO and protected weekends—to make sure they’re being used. The company also invests heavily in targeted manager training, ensuring that deal teams and staff have the tools they need to build resilience and excel in their roles.Chiodi and a panel of cross-industry leaders discussed tools and benefits that help manage everyday stressors and avoid employee burnout at From Day One’s Manhattan conference. The session was moderated by HR Brew senior reporter Courtney Vinopal.Employers across industries are finding ways to detect burnout warning signs. Serina Pak, SVP of talent and total rewards for Danone, works with her team to use pulse checks, employee resource group insights, and biannual healthcare utilization reviews to understand the mindset of the broader employee population.“What we emphasize is really identifying early warning signs, and we do that by being very connected with our employees, doing pulse checks, and we also believe that a lot of this is about culture,” said Pak. The company focuses on connection and fosters a leader-led culture that empowers employees through a shared accountability model.Modern Workplace Wellness“Ten years ago, walking challenges were what we did for wellness,” said Nicole Wolfe, VP of B2B partnerships at Rula Health. “What an incredible evolution to what we consider wellness now.”Wolfe is seeing companies shift from a check-the-box mentality with regard to mental health to making wellness a foundational part of their employee programs. She identified three main pillars that many employees and employers are prioritizing: timely access to care, with no long lead times; authentic provider connections; and reasonable costs enabled by in-network care.Danone has a layered benefits ecosystem, says Pak, which evaluates every benefit against four pillars: physical, nutritional, mental, and financial health. This influences the company’s decisions not only around medical coverage but also flexible time off, fertility support, childcare leave, and more, to support thousands of employees. “We think about how we support every employee’s mental wellness.”Panelists spoke about "Workplace Wellness When Employees Feel They’re at the Breaking Point" at the Manhattan conferencePanelists also addressed how AI is entering the wellness equation. Sword Health’s AI-assisted care model offers employees 24/7 access to care, enabling care on their timeline while preserving PTO hours for rest and rejuvenation, says Kinsay Conner, doctor of physical therapy and clinical specialist with Sword Health.But AI shouldn’t be working on its own. All of the company’s solutions “pair members with a clinician, whether that’s a PhD psychologist or a doctor of physical therapy. The clinicians are providing 100% of the clinical oversight,” said Conner. “The AI is there for support.”Mental Health Support When It MattersChiodi uncovered a critical access gap at Moelis early in her tenure. Despite having very robust medical plans, employees often ran into 3-4-month wait times for mental health care in the UK and multi-week waits in the United States. Moelis found an organization to partner with that could connect employees with care within one business day, and eliminated barriers to care by completely covering that benefit for employees.“We made a decision as a firm to cover the benefit at 100% so that we were removing really any barrier that someone could come up with to access their own self-guided elements,” she said, “or to graduate into care [with a coach, psychiatrist, or psychologist].”Panelists agreed that the opportunity for genuine disconnection from work is critical to mental wellness, but methods vary between organizations. Wolfe noted a trending practice of normalizing mental healthcare by allowing team members to block out calendar time for therapy appointments.The ROI of Workplace WellnessMeasuring ROI on these comprehensive benefit programs is “an art and a science” said Pak. Danone analyzes not only employee survey data and benefit utilization statistics, but also turnover, leave of absence, and engagement scores to determine the company’s best path forward.Wolfe cautions that utilization alone is not enough—it needs to lead to results. “There’s a balance of ensuring that you can provide care regardless of where people are and what they need, but also they are utilizing it in a way that you can see results,” she said. “Engagement is important, but it’s also ensuring that the right people are using the right benefits at the right time.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Evolving Benefits Landscape: Personalization, AI, and the New Era of Employee-Centered Strategy
BY Jessica Swenson June 18, 2026Many employers responded to increasingly diverse workforces and the pandemic-era talent landscape by adding niche benefits, only to find that employees either don’t know about them or aren’t using them. Amid continuously mounting financial pressures, those same organizations are now facing a renewed focus on the cost of benefits packages and their administration.“There is more focus from business leaders asking, ‘Do we need to be spending this extra money in these extra ways? Is this the right thing to do for our people?’” said Amy Waickman, global head of benefits at Arup. She suggests evaluating each benefit individually to determine whether it serves a clear purpose, is well-communicated, and is being used. “Because if it’s not, then what’s the value of having it out there?”In conversation with HR Brew reporter Mikaela Cohen at From Day One’s half-day Chicago benefits conference, Waickman discussed strategies to balance budget requirements with an optimized employee benefits experience.Growing legislation regarding pay transparency means that employees can more easily learn about and compare compensation with their peers. As a result, said Waickman, “benefits are going to become an increasing differentiator in total rewards packages.”While budget constraints can force difficult benefits decisions for employers, she recommends taking a structured, cautious approach rather than abruptly pausing or cancelling offerings. Organizations need to know why they’re pausing a benefit and what outcomes they need to see to make a go-forward decision. Communication is also key to keeping employees informed and maintaining trust.Amy Waickman, global head of benefits at Arup, spoke with Mikaela Cohen, reporter at HR Brew, during the fireside chat in Chicago Employers can optimize access to existing benefit programs by helping their teams better navigate their options, she says, especially during times of crisis. The ability to meet employees where they are and fulfill their unique needs simplifies the experience and helps reduce their anxiety. However, she shared that the old model of reaching out to an HR contact for guidance is shifting, as companies are now exploring AI to offer true personalization. She expects it to change how employees interact with their company’s benefits ecosystem—possibly within the next six-to-twelve months.“There’s a change now. In the past, it’s been really difficult to communicate and navigate well at a personal level. Now, with AI, I think there’s going to be an opportunity to help employees navigate that on a personalized, individual basis based on their circumstances,” she said. While AI has transformed the benefits landscape significantly, Waickman noted that it happened a little slower than the industry expected—which she thinks is a good thing. Her HR and benefits team has improved efficiency in some administrative and operational tasks by using AI to compare year-over-year plan documents, automate surface-level invoice checks, or translate foreign-language policies and handbooks.But an element of caution is also warranted. One area of focus for Arup’s leadership team is vendor AI practices. At each contract renewal, the company inquires how employee data is used in vendor systems to determine whether contractual guardrails are needed. “I think there is a danger there of not protecting our employees, and making sure that we’re getting the best outcomes for our people. We don’t want our vendors to be using AI or using data in a way that would inhibit that.”One challenge of integrating AI into HR operations is identifying and measuring ROI. In the planning stages, Waickman quantifies its value through time saved, but in later phases it can be difficult to retroactively confirm those projections.“We can say we’re freeing up X amount of time from our benefit professionals to do these other sorts of activities and things, but is there going to be a way to look back and say actually we did free up [a specific] amount of time, and what does that look like compared to what we expected?”To offset employee uncertainty about the advent of AI and job security, she takes an approach that shows how AI can support and elevate them. “All we can do as leaders is make sure that we are demonstrating clearly the ways that AI can help them become more efficient,” she said, “and then continually give them other opportunities to expand, so that they feel confident around their job security.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Recognizing and Retaining a Distributed Workforce
BY Jessica Swenson June 15, 2026Tangible recognition of the unique needs employees face on a daily basis is a key to engagement and retention, says Heidi DeSautel, managing director of client delivery at Growth Operators. This can show up as schedule flexibility, location flexibility, and customized benefit programs that enable employees to fulfill familial responsibilities and improve their quality of life in meaningful ways.“We see a lot of generational differences on our team. We really try to be intentional, to meet them where they are, and provide them with support that they value as recognition in our workforce.” she said. “Just really understanding and valuing where they’re at and being intentional about providing that for them, so that they can support our clients the best they can.”Methods to engage and recognize distributed employees were discussed by a panel of leaders at From Day One’s Minneapolis conference. The panel was moderated by Colleen Flaherty Manchester, professor of work and organizations and director of the center for HR and labor studies for Carlson School of Management. Elissa Beach, director of HR for WCG, saw her company embrace fully remote work after the pandemic, including a significant reduction in office space. WCG maintained its strong connections by establishing a cross-functional, multi-level project team that gathered data through employee research, focus groups, and surveys to inform a new strategy and playbook that help teams stay connected.The playbook helps employees and managers identify potential team activities based on time allotments, financial budgets, and specific target categories like communication, collaboration, connection, or community. “We were ultimately recognized for this particular playbook in the remote work excellence category, but we continue to evolve it and add to it over time, and it's been something that all of our employees continue to use daily,” Beach said.The group of leaders spoke about "Recognizing and Retaining a Distributed Workforce" on stage in Minneapolis Other organizations intentionally create connection opportunities through planned in-person and group events. Sherrie Kronforst, VP of HR for Thrivent, discussed the summits, meetings, virtual events, and collaborative technology that her organization uses to maintain strong intercompany relationships. Thrivent also offers a virtual recognition program through a platform called Pathfinders, and provides every employee an annual recognition budget each year. “Anybody can recognize anybody,” Kronforst said, “and every employee gets a budget every year, so they can [give] a social recognition, or a points-based recognition.”Beach acknowledges that employees want to be seen by their broader work community and not just their boss. By shifting employee recognition more heavily to Microsoft Teams channels, she says that WCG has seen broadened engagement and amplified social connection between teams. This helps take the onus off of managers as a single source of recognition and employee celebration. The continuous change and uncertainty in today’s workplace, especially regarding AI and job security, creates a clear need to build and sustain employee resilience. Acknowledging employee fears, creating supportive cultures, and encouraging peer support in collaborative spaces are some simple ways that employers can help teams to build that resilience, says DeSautel. In addition to virtual connection points like Slack, DeSautel says, she sees clients create geographical hubs that enable employees to get together in person. “They try and get them together in person a couple times a year, so that they are able to meet each other and create that personal relationship. I think that’s one of the things that helps employees the most with resilience.”Supporting a healthcare workforce that spans a variety of patient-facing facilities with varying roles, scopes of work, and computer access results in a completely different set of needs. Jen Bailey, VP of total rewards and HR shared services at Allina Health, spoke about the multi-faceted approach Allina takes to equip its leaders to recognize employees in real time. This model includes everything from digital social recognition platforms to in-person leader huddles, group conversations, monetary and non-monetary recognition, and care-on-the-spot acknowledgements.“It’s a really unique blend of trying to provide the leaders with the tools that they need and being able to meet the employees where they're at, so it's always evolving,” Bailey said.To position employees for recognition through development and advancement opportunities, some organizations are focusing on leadership competencies, talent pipeline maximization, and elevated performance appraisal systems. “We’re really looking at that senior leadership group to be the folks who are leading us into the future,” said Kronforst, “so we have recently reset expectations for leaders; we’ve created executive level competencies.”Through this refined performance management program, Thrivent’s leaders are better positioned for the proactive problem-solving and accelerated decision-making that will eliminate bottlenecks and maintain momentum on strategic organizational initiatives. Leaders are also expected to not only reach their goals, but reach them in a way that aligns with the company’s culture and values. “It’s not just the what, but the how,” said Kronforst. “So, making sure that we’re connecting the dots, [looking at] what are we developing and how are we rewarding and recognizing the right behaviors.”Increasing shortages of healthcare workers has caused Bailey and team to think creatively about how to maintain a strong talent pipeline. Allina has built apprentice programs for hard-to-fill clinical positions, creating internal mobility for existing Allina employees while opening up entry-level positions and career advancement options for external candidates.Employees are encouraged to explore new roles within system clinics, hospitals, and specialty sites before Allina seeks external hires. “Making sure that we’re leveraging our internal talent before we go to the external market has been another big piece of that internal growth and recognition,” said Bailey. “So, investing in who and how is going to fill those roles for us, then leveraging that internal talent. How do we ensure that we’re providing those growth opportunities?”For those external hires it does make, Allina launched a new program to improve the experience for first-year employees, which includes an in-house wellbeing navigation program designed in partnership with mental health physicians and EAP partners. Confidential navigators help employees locate and connect with the appropriate resources for their needs. The American Hospital Association has recognized this initiative, says Bailey, and the program’s growth is increasingly driven by word-of-mouth rather than internal marketing efforts, demonstrating the value derived by employees.She framed employee well-being support as a crucial element of HR: “from the retention standpoint, what can we offer as an employee that is unique and special for them, so that they can not only care for the community but for themselves.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer, content strategist, and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Personalizing Benefits While Keeping Costs in Check
BY Jessica Swenson May 22, 2026Employers are shifting employee benefit models away from fragmented vendor ecosystems toward integrated solutions focused on outcomes rather than utilization, says Cara Dochat, PhD, clinical specialist at Sword Health.“We want options that are easy to use, easy to access, that help us manage our everyday conditions—not just the catastrophic ones when we’re in crisis—and that also feel personalized to us,” Dochat said.As budgets tighten amid continuously escalating economic pressures, organizations are seeking ways to improve employee health, engagement, productivity, and retention through personalized benefits, all while reining in spending. This was the topic of a panel at From Day One’s Seattle conference, moderated by journalist and healthcare communications specialist Alexis Hauk.By collaborating with vendor partners whose programs meet employees where they are, says Paris Ramsey, VP of health solutions for Aon, employers can help their teams reduce absenteeism and burnout through personalized care. Aon has identified an employee demand for virtual care pathways since the pandemic; virtual care also benefits workers who may live in areas known as care deserts. “Working with vendors that have really good access to care in that virtual manner allows employees to get the care that they need when they need it,” she said. Panelists spoke about "Personalizing Benefits While Keeping Costs in Check" in SeattleDochat described the evidence-based, personalized mental health services available to users through Sword Health’s clinician-driven, AI-supported platform. By shifting away from a session-based model of care to an always-on solution, she says, the company is able to offer in-the-moment mental healthcare to an expanded audience.An increasingly diverse global workforce means that organizations must also consider customizable benefits menus that can flex for local customs and culture. Ongoing employee feedback and demographic awareness has been critical to program design for her organization, says Vivian Hung, head of total rewards & HRIS at Enphase Energy. “The approach we take is global guardrails with local execution. We standardize on our global strategy and guiding principles. We make decisions based on external market competitiveness, internal equity, statutory compliance and, of course, employee experience,” she said. “Then we allow flexibility for our regions to execute based on what is best suited or best trending for that particular country.”However, even the strongest benefits programs can fail if employees don’t know what is available to them or how to use it. Panelists agreed that employee education and communication is key. For example, veterans transitioning from the military to a corporate environment may not know the differences between government healthcare and private employer systems, says Nick Rettenmyer, VP of total rewards at Shield AI. “When you have a population that hasn’t necessarily grown up in a corporate environment, there’s a big opportunity there to make sure that they understand the benefits, and what it can mean to them and their families.”Some companies use AI technology to drive engagement and help with decision-making. Hung highlighted ways that Enphase is “finding creative ways to optimize the programs [they] offer.” The company hosts monthly educational sessions about existing benefits and provides on-demand libraries of AI-produced videos that help employees learn more about how to engage and utilize those benefits, she says.“We’ve put a lot of tools in the hands of employees to help them to navigate that, especially around health benefits in the U.S.,” said Tristan Orford, VP of total rewards and M&A for SentinelOne. “You need to do the education to help employees understand what [specific health plans] look like in their own situation.”AI-powered decision support during open enrollment helps Aon employees proactively ask risk-based questions to narrow down solutions, reducing confusion, says Ramsey. “You get the engagement that you’re looking for because employees feel that they had a hand in the decision-making process, and they also understand what they’re buying at the same time.”Rettenmyer and his team are building a total rewards portal that will demonstrate the value of employee benefits programs in a meaningful way. By offering “a consolidated place where [employees] can start to self-select,” he said, “your spending becomes much more effective.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Hidden Driver of Frontline Retention: Why Caregiving Support Is the Benefit You’re Missing
BY Jessica Swenson May 20, 2026Sometimes, the hardest parts of your employees’ lives are the most invisible, especially for frontline workers. The variety of caregiving demands experienced by workers can have emotional, mental, financial, and physical tolls that aren’t visible to their employers, says Griffen Kelly, senior director of partnership development at Cariloop.By learning about and meeting the caregiving needs of their employees, he says, companies have the opportunity to elevate workplace culture while boosting employee loyalty and trust. “We’ve seen a shift from caregiving being a social need to being an economic need from an employer perspective,” Kelly said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s May virtual conference.The care economy is in crisis, he says. Forty-eight states are already reporting care shortages, and Americans over 65 are expected to soon outnumber those under 18 for the first time ever, causing demand to continue to grow faster than supply. Added to the already increasing demand for child care, this contributes to rapidly rising costs, long waitlists, and complex systems to navigate. According to Kelly, caregivers often spend an estimated average of 27 to 40 unpaid hours per week coordinating logistics, providers, and schedules.Still, these challenges can hide within organizations, and Kelly believes there are two key reasons. One is that many people don’t identify themselves as a caregiver because they feel they’re simply doing what is expected to meet family or social obligations. Griffen Kelly, senior director of partnership development at Cariloop, led the virtual thought leadership spotlight (company photo)The other possible reason is that people consciously avoid disclosing their care demands to avoid potential professional consequences. “There’s a certain stigma that can be associated with caregivers,” he said. “If I raise my hand and say I’m taking care of somebody, that might get me looked at differently at work. I might get passed up for that promotion because maybe I have too much on my plate and my manager is worried about my workload,” he said. Employee caregiving challenges often show up in the workplace through absenteeism, staffing instability, leave issues, and turnover. “For the most part, caregiving is reactionary,” said Kelly. “Typically, when you’re choosing between work and life, life is going to win out.” However, trying to balance work and caregiving with no support can lead to employee burnout, distraction, and retention issues. There is hope, says Kelly, especially if employers offer care support. Citing data provided by Cariloop, he states that over 75% of working parents are more likely to stay with employers offering care benefits, there can be significant reduction in unplanned absences, and many supported caregivers report improved productivity. Providing even modest caregiving support programs shows employees that you understand their struggles and demonstrates that they are supported by leadership. This not only helps them fulfill their responsibilities outside of work but drives workplace productivity.“Folks who do offer care benefits, however small, recognize that that is creating a culture of care from the top down. You’re showing that progression. You’re showing that buy-in from a leadership perspective,” he said. Cariloop sees a human-centered support model as “absolutely mission critical.” While digital tools are great for self-service, tracking of logistics, and broader needs, there is no replacement for one-on-one human relationships, personalized guidance, and emotional support.Their program focuses on direct coaching and caregiving advocacy to help families navigate an increasingly complicated caregiving landscape, including locating childcare services, making eldercare decisions, and long-term planning. It also offers backup solutions for immediate or near-term needs like emergency nanny coverage or temporary care support during crises. “Being able to offer flexible backup care is something that we have seen is a resounding need in the market,” said Kelly.The company’s approach also balances the needs of three key stakeholders—employers, employees, and care providers—by creating a more sustainable care ecosystem that includes flexibility and provider engagement.So, how can employers begin to implement a caregiving benefit program? Kelly recommends starting with your typical pulse surveys or other employee surveys. Be curious and ask questions to understand the unique and diverse needs of your teams. To evaluate potential ROI, he suggests aligning those metrics with employer priorities like utilization rates, improved return-to-work outcomes, reduced absenteeism, and better productivity. Kelly acknowledges that this type of support can be overlooked during benefits planning discussions, but encourages leaders that already offer the benefit to review utilization data, measure effectiveness, and seek opportunities to improve the value and engagement in your program.“There’s a lot of opportunity to drive a more valuable and sought-after benefit. Take a look under the hood, if you’re offering one of those benefits today, and see where maybe you can make some adjustments, where you can drive a more valuable benefit for your workforce.” He also emphasized the importance of meeting employees where they are and communicating effectively so they know what is available to them. By visibly and clearly demonstrating your investment in their support, you can strengthen employee confidence and dedication.“Our goal is always to make sure that we’re meeting employees in whatever way, shape or form is most conducive to them and their familial situation,” he said. “If you show that you’re invested in your employees and their caregiving needs, they will feel loyal and they will feel trusting in you as an employer.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Cariloop, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photo by SeizaVisuals/iStock)
Cut Costs, Not Corners: Effective Marketing in Lean Times
BY Jessica Swenson May 13, 2026Don’t be afraid to question things you’ve always done, says Allison Gillespie, VP of marketing for O'Reilly Media. “We as marketers always need to look at that, while also leaving room for experimentation, because everything is changing and the playbooks we’ve been using for years are not working anymore,” she said.Rapidly changing landscapes in technology and customer behavior are forcing organizations to think creatively about fundamental shifts in their marketing effectiveness. This was the topic of a panel discussion moderated by Workforce Observer founder Subadhra Sriram at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference.Traditional qualified leads can feel like a marketing-driven initiative without any sales buy-in. That’s why Kumarbabu Vanapalli, VP of digital experience & engagement for Infineon Technologies, worked with junior sales reps to co-define valuable leads and experiment with continuous feedback loops and weekly iterations to refine lead targeting. “Our job is to enable salespeople to sell, not tell them which leads they have to go after,” he said. This strategy grew Infineon’s lead pipeline to over 55,000 per year over the course of three years.With customer indicators coming from multiple sources, customer voice, leads, socials, marketing now requires an omnichannel approach, says Gillespie. She believes it is crucial to find the right mix of channels and be flexible enough to redirect underperforming initiatives into new opportunities.Leaders spoke on the executive panel titled, "Effective Marketing in Lean Times: Creative Approaches to Delivering Value"AI search functionality is quickly reshaping marketing measurement as we know it. Hugh Burnham, head of search (SEM / SEO) at Ford Motor Company, shared that 70% of informational Google searches do not get past the AI overview, which makes traditional metrics like website visits and page flow less relevant. He encourages active optimization of your website content for AI-driven discovery.“Being passive and looking at your Google Analytics or Adobe is last year,” Burnham said. “You really need to change things, like crawlability, citation score, sentiment analysis, and how is your citation viewed?”Echoing the need for updated metrics, Andrea Cutright, VP of marketing for Upwork, says that Upwork replaced over one-third of its KPIs within its most recent annual planning cycle. “If you haven't swapped out a lot of your KPIs, you’re not watching where the market’s going.”Sajag Chikarsal, VP of marketing at DigiCert, advocates for a shift to revenue-aligned marketing measurement. By redirecting his marketing organization’s focus from top of the funnel to metrics like deal velocity, average sales cycle, and average sales price trends, he is able to connect focus areas back to specific marketing channels. “Now you can even say how many leads or MQLs or engagements am I getting from the AEO,” Chikarsal said, “and are they converting at a faster pace than the leads that I’m generally getting from the website from just pure SEO?”Rather than building content based on brand messaging, Burnham suggests researching real user questions and using FAQ structures and schema markup tools to create content that’s more easily discoverable by AI agents. “What ends up happening is, your answers from your website populate the Google ‘also asked’ questions. That also helps get a signal to the AIO so your data ends up showing your circuit.”Treating FAQs as living documents and ensuring they are written conversationally, says Vanapalli, makes your content more likely to match AI query patterns, increasing the chance that it will show up in searches.Internal AI transformations can drive marketing value as well, as long as organizations avoid some common mistakes like misalignment with customer needs and focusing solely on AI as a tool rather than a broader strategy.A clear definition of success and structured experimentation are important steps to effectively pilot and implement AI, says Cutright. Lack of confidence in outcomes can create barriers, but working together to define success provides a tangible, shared goal for teams to pursue. “You can visualize or feel your path to that success, rather than what I’ve seen some peers struggling with, where you just need to move to AI. That can be a little bit overwhelming, and it can’t really feel real.”To ensure consistency and avoid legal risks, warns Burnham, companies must standardize any LLM tools used by their teams, including the capability to monitor use and inputs. It’s also critical to reskill talent from authors and creators to editors and strategists. When using AI for content, journalistic integrity is paramount. “Make sure that your editors are also very good at prompt data and make sure that they read it. They just don’t copy and paste it.”Framing AI as a growth opportunity rather than a threat can help gain marketer buy-in and encourage skill-building, says Cutright. Show employees how they can eliminate repetitive or disliked tasks, she suggests, and create environments that are safe for experimentation. She told the story of Upwork’s Festival of Failure, which celebrates learnings based on failed initiatives, creating a safe space for employees to explore new things and learn from each other.Marketing leaders also embrace unconventional methods to drive ROI. To maximize his team’s cost efficiency, rather than investing in expensive event sponsorships, Chikarsal sends sales development reps to events with meeting quota targets. This has reduced their cost-per-opportunity from $23,000 to $6,500, while giving them better insights from direct customer interactions and breakout sessions.In-person engagement through trade shows, dinners, and events are outperforming digital marketing for O’Reilly Media, says Gillespie. People want to see that there is a human behind the brand, so direct interaction, especially at trade shows, helps reinforce trust. “Going back to that very human face-to-face is actually moving the needle. And we get so much direct attribution from trade shows.”Cutright advocates for a simple solution that empowers teams and helps integrate new processes: “Just give people permission to move in the new direction without trying to hang onto what’s in the past.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Invisalign Story: A Case Study in Marketing a Revolutionary Product
BY Jessica Swenson May 11, 2026While Invisalign is known for changing lives through innovative digital orthodontics, the company has had to think creatively to actually earn that relevance among its customers and partners.The evolution and strategy behind its marketing approach was discussed by Kamal Bhandal, SVP of the global Invisalign brand for Align Technology, during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Silicon Valley marketing conference. The session was moderated by independent video host, journalist, and producer Claire Reilly.“Really identify the stakeholders in your customer journey, so that you know that you’re attacking points of failures or points of delight,” said Bhandal. Invisalign started by identifying the service providers who would comprise its delivery network, and invited them to help test and refine its products, she says. To maintain the partnership and trust of their clinical partners, the company makes continuous efforts to understand and meet their needs. “We’re looking to understand their business needs, their clinical needs, and the clinical outcomes that they’re looking for, and then designing products that meet those clinical needs,” she said. Kamal Bhandal, SVP, global Invisalign brand, consumer & Americas Marketing at Align Technology, spoke during the fireside chatInvisalign also engages in peer-to-peer training, education, and certification programs to prepare clinicians to use its products, as well as conferences and specialized sessions with deep dives into treatment techniques. Other key stakeholders in the Invisalign customer journey include end users, decision-makers or influencers, and frontline staff. Understanding each of these stakeholders is important, she says, as each can impact those points of failure or delight. The company spent its early days proving that the product worked, before shifting to a lifestyle marketing approach that highlighted how Invisalign could seamlessly fit into consumers’ lives. Continuous innovation prepared the company to manage increasingly complex cases, which broadened its scope. “We always first start with understanding the consumer, understanding the person, and what their lives are like,” said Bhandal. This helps the brand focus its marketing less on product features and specs and more on solving key pain points that matter to the customer. By studying the real lives of teens and parents, from social pressures and confidence issues to practical constraints like family schedules and multiple responsibilities, Invisalign can position itself as a product that reduces friction by fitting into the user’s life rather than disrupting it.She cited two examples that appeal to decision influencers (parents): damage to traditional braces during sporting events can cause emergency orthodontist visits—with Invisalign, these visits are greatly reduced. Additionally, the simplicity of hygiene as compared to traditional braces makes it easier for teens to maintain. For the teens themselves, the draw becomes straighter teeth and increased confidence without the stigma of traditional braces.Solving these problems for families also earns Invisalign its relevance in current culture. “We think about not talking at people, but really creating a conversation and being a part of culture,” says Bhandal. “Brands who integrate into culture, who move at the speed of culture, are brands who win.” Invisalign shifted its branding from a top-down to a community-driven approach, using real stories from patients and doctors to shape the brand. Cultural participation and user-generated content are key.As a healthcare-focused company backed by science and technology, however, it doesn’t tie itself to any one category of social influencers. It partners with lifestyle, fitness, beauty, and health influencers who represent the brand’s typical customers and showcase Invisalign as one part of their well-being process.A core takeaway from Invisalign’s brand evolution is to become obsessed with understanding your customer and what their life is like. “Not through just quantitative data and quantitative data analysis,” said Bhandal, but really dig into who your consumer is, who is influencing the decisions along the way, and what they are thinking about. “Become super obsessed with understanding human behavior of those that are involved in your buying journey.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Designing an Employee Experience That Inspires, Recognizes, and Supports
BY Jessica Swenson May 08, 2026Given the amount of change and disruption in today’s workplace, the employee experience is really the change experience, says Renu Sharma, head of learning and skill development at HP.“Learning and change management are no longer a support function. They’re really defining the employee experience,” Sharma told moderator Rachael Myrow, senior editor at KQED, during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. Sharma advocated for using clarity, transparency, and skill-building to give employees the confidence they need to adapt and remain productive. HP also offers leadership development to support leaders helping their teams navigate and prepare for change.Agile, human-centered leadership development systems are another key to building better employee environments, says Michel-Riyad Nabti, senior director of learning and development for Autodesk. By using enterprise-wide data to personalize leadership training and inform workflow capabilities, Nabti’s group positions people leaders to effectively guide teams through change.“We’re focused on building high performance, and also building capabilities for managers to be drivers of change and lead teams through change, because of the inevitability of continuous change,” he said. “As we look at defining what those competencies look like, we are also examining, how do we continuously evolve [them] to reflect the needs of the organization and externalities that are having an impact on the company?”The human side of transformation needs to be considered, says Matt Jackson, chief growth officer for Unmind. Workplace transformations can amplify the existing life stressors that employees bring to work every day, he says, so investing heavily in technology but neglecting the psychological impact often leads to transformation failure.Panelists spoke about "Designing an Employee Experience That Inspires, Recognizes, and Supports" at the Silicon Valley eventIt’s also important to recognize the emotional process that employees must manage while going through change, says Hari Date, principal consultant at Workhuman. Rather than enforcing top-down mandates that require employees to “just deal with” a change, allow time for them to adjust. “Give them that time to process and just understand and be aware that you’ve already gone through that journey. They’re just hearing it for the first time; give them that time and that grace to go through that,” he said. Panelists agreed that providing support to employees doesn’t have to be complex. Citing a Gallup survey, Jackson said, “The biggest driver of engagement, from a manager’s behavior, is having one meaningful conversation with a direct report each week.”Providing a safe space for learning also emerged as a common theme. By creating structured learning spaces and sharing internal success stories, says Sharma, HP helps employees build confidence through visibility and continuous learning, which helps scale adoption of new concepts like AI. It also helps connect team members who have similar challenges. “[Make] sure you're providing them a safe space and having that trust and psychological safety where they can come and learn.”According to Nabti, normalizing AI experimentation, reducing the stigma around using AI tools, and encouraging discussion of how AI shows up in daily work can also help foster a sense of psychological safety. “How do you open up that conversation and create an AI-native mindset so that your team feels fully invited into that conversation and has the opportunity to grow as individuals while they grow in terms of performance,” he said. Leaders acknowledge that AI adoption requires both cultural and behavioral shifts within an organization. Cynthia Hannah, VP of talent development and experience at Okta, stresses that AI adoption is shaped by perception and can be uneven across organizational levels. She has found that leadership teams are more on the leading edge of AI use, but aren’t necessarily sharing their experience with the organization. That has helped Okta to ask the right questions to find its footing with workforce AI proficiency.“What does getting everyone proficient on AI look like, and how do we keep building the skills on that as we go forward?” Hannah asked. By starting with that core proficiency, you can better position the organization to integrate AI into meaningful workflows and create value.A focus on adapting mindsets, skills, and expectations can help balance anxiety with healthy tension to promote AI adoption. Nabti and team are looking at how AI is fundamentally changing their teams’ workflows while also exploring how it can augment human potential.Hannah acknowledges AI skill gaps but sees great opportunity for talent and HR professionals. “If you're in the talent space, it's been really hard to take the recognition data, the performance data, the feedback that happens in a class, and actually have all those signals together. There's just a real drive to make all the systems talk together to have that insight.”Despite concerns that managers will be replaced by AI, many companies are actually using it to support managers with coaching, education, recognition insights, and workflow innovations.Unmind centralizes training materials and best practices into a single proprietary AI coach to boost the effectiveness of newly promoted managers, says Jackson.The use of AI-driven employee recognition data allows Workhuman clients to identify engagement gaps, take proactive retention actions, and recommend new hire mentors. By shifting your perspective on recognition analytics, Date asserts that you can pick up attrition signals and take early actions to prevent employee turnover.Hannah suggests that thinking critically about how and why your organization is using AI can help you find new ways to add business value and engage teams. “When you start to talk about what’s possible that wasn’t possible before, that clicks into creativity. Now it’s change you’re leading versus change you’re responding to, and you can engage your teams in that.”Organizational change and AI technologies aren’t going anywhere, so leaders need to embrace transparency, clarity, and employee-centered strategies to keep teams engaged and guide them into these new spaces. With a long-term view of AI-driven workplaces and lifestyles, Date said, “I think, for now, it’s just figuring out how we coexist in this world that we’re building.” Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Building Benefits That Balance Cost Efficiency With Employee Outcomes
BY Jessica Swenson April 15, 2026As healthcare and benefits costs continue to rise, organizations are under increasing pressure to cut spending while maintaining the employee experience. Jordan Dhillon, VP of sales for SmithRx, suggests that one way to drive cost efficiency is to explore alternative partners and start benefit evaluations early. “Don’t be afraid to have the conversation. Look for the long-term partner that’s aligned with your model and your values, and start the process early,” she said during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Boston benefits conference. Dhillon spoke on a panel with four other leaders, moderated by Harvard Business Review contributing columnist Rebecca Knight.Evaluating Benefits ProgramsTo balance utilization, cost, and vendors within your benefits programming, Elizabeth McClure, head of benefits for Lantheus, endorses a full audit approach focused on refining and streamlining your offerings. She recommends looking at utilization rates to determine high-value benefits, and maximizing impact by consolidating duplicative services provided by multiple vendors. “I think it was important to go through and get the full picture of what employees value, and how we can really focus on those [things].”Panelists spoke about "Building Benefits That Balance Cost Efficiency With Employee Outcomes," in BostonWhile ROI is of course a critical part of the decision-making process, Kathleen Harris, head of consultant relations & strategic programs at Forma, emphasized that overreliance on ROI can detract from benefits that are valuable for overall culture even with limited direct use. She told the story of the company’s on-site daycare; it can only serve 250 families out of Forma’s nearly 1,000 employees, but employees across the spectrum are proud to say that they have on-site daycare. She calls this a halo benefit.Harris also cautioned against fragmented evaluation of benefits. “Sometimes we talk about the ecosystem, but then we also look at things in a silo. So we’re not looking at it across, we’re looking at it vertically, in terms of what we’re offering our employees.” Between this siloed view and failing to incorporate employee feedback, companies can wind up with lower-value, fragmented benefit plans.The lack of fiduciary alignment in traditional pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) can be a hidden cause of overspending, says Dhillon. She advocates for partnering with independent PBMs that focus on lower drug costs, transparent pricing, and patient-first outcomes, aligning themselves with employer and employee needs. “I would say you need to find a partner that’s independent and that is operating in your best interest as a fiduciary,” said Dhillon.Inclusion in Benefits DesignMarjory Lake, head of total rewards & people operations at JCDecaux, suggests that companies consolidate vendors, continuously listen to employees to meet them where they are, and design benefits programming for real-life employee needs.JCDecaux recently combined healthcare savings accounts and 401(k) accounts into the same vendor, saving the company money while improving the employee experience, she says.Lake looks at employee benefits holistically to ensure the company is meeting the needs of most employees. “I want to look at something that’s more impactful and more meaningful. That way [you can get] that buy-in for the higher ups, but also you’re meeting people in the middle of where they are in their lives.”Aside from the simple shifting of costs, companies are finding innovative ways to provide value. Harris advocated for lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs) as a core requirement to address the diverse, evolving needs of today’s workforce. She discussed their ability to complement traditional benefit plans by bridging gaps for things like caregiving education, and counseling that are otherwise not covered.The advent of GLP-1 medications for weight loss has created a new benefit-cost challenge for companies, panelists agreed. “What we really focus on is that supportive ecosystem around all of these things. We want to partner with lifestyle vendors and offer these things like gym memberships and other pathways to meet people in the middle,” said Lake. “A healthier and happier workforce will, over time, pay it for itself.”Cindy de Bruin, senior director of benefits and global mobility for Boston Scientific Corp., highlighted the company’s Surgery Center of Excellence, which routes certain procedures through a curated provider network with the goal of lower costs, improved outcomes, and shortened recovery times.However, the workforce had a strong, unexpected reaction to the change, leading the company to realize that they needed better communication. “We had to explain that part of this is not just about cost—this is also about your benefit. This is also about all our employees across the U.S..”Communication as a StrategyNot surprisingly, the need for communication and employee listening around benefits programming emerged as a common theme. Employees need to understand why changes are happening, says Dhillon, or you can run into resistance and engagement issues. “The more you can communicate, the more you can educate your employees as to why we’re doing this—I think it’s powerful, and that’s where I see the most success, honestly.” Communication gaps can impact employees’ awareness of what is available to them. Vendors can help them navigate benefits, says de Bruin, but first there needs to be communication from the employer. “If we do listening sessions, for example, we sometimes hear of benefits that they would like to have offered that are already there. That means we are doing something wrong in the communication.” she said. To help neutralize lack of awareness or slow benefit uptake, Harris recommends multifaceted communications and repeated exposure to visual cues alongside traditional communication campaigns. Using an established color-coded system that categorizes company benefits, Forma draws attention to specific offerings or benefits by adapting its intranet site during seasonal awareness campaigns, but still sends a notification postcard to employees’ homes to notify them of actions like benefits enrollment.McClure achieved a 90% response rate on a recent employee survey by clearly communicating the purpose, “to make informed decisions moving forward,” ensuring anonymity, and allowing open-text responses. Employees are given the message that “this is your big chance to get out everything you want to get out,” she said, “because it’s so valuable [for the company] to hear this feedback.” In that survey, they “had 95% of people say that they rated benefits as the most important thing when determining whether they’re going to get a new job or stay at the one they’re at.” Armed with this employee data, she is able to keep leaders focused on the big picture and avoid quick fixes that could have negative long-term financial implications. Additionally, it’s crucial to balance vocal employee preferences with what is best for most employees, says Lake. “Our job is to always look at the equity—what the greater good is, what the need is,” she said. “The goal is to build a foundation that supports everyone. That’s not always easy, because everyone has different needs at different times, and they’re in different places in their lives.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
AI-Ready Workforce: Bridging the Gap Between AI Adoption and Performance
BY Jessica Swenson April 08, 2026“There are really powerful ways that AI can augment, support, and accelerate human decisioning around who to hire and who to move forward, as opposed to AI tools that make decisions for us,” said Andy Nelesen, market director, talent acquisition solutions at SHL. “I would encourage you to explore some of those solutions, systems, and opportunities that really design in the human judgment piece from the start.”With rapidly increasing applicant volumes and AI-driven transformation across the hiring process, talent acquisition teams are now faced with identifying how to effectively balance technology adoption and high-quality decision-making at scale while maintaining applicant trust. This was the topic of a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s March virtual conference.Both candidates and TA teams are using AI to streamline the job search and hiring process, says Nelesen, but he thinks the current benefits may be one-sided. “It feels like AI has been a real dream for candidates and a bit of a nightmare for talent acquisition teams, in terms of getting these new technologies fully enabled and delivering value.”As candidates use AI to contextualize, polish, and submit their resumes, shrinking TA teams can be left with candidates who aren’t aware they’ve applied for a specific job. Similar career documents generated by AI make it more difficult for hiring teams to screen and differentiate applicants. “When AI is polishing up all of these resumes, they sure look the same.” Nelesen said. Andy Nelesen, the global leader of SHL’s suite of talent acquisition products, led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)Additionally, there are increasing concerns that what recruiters are learning from AI-generated documents may not be real. He suggests that employers require candidates to demonstrate their skills during the interview process, not just claim them. “All of this is making things much more difficult, obviously, for the talent acquisition function, especially at the selection portion of the hiring funnel.”That said, TA teams are also using AI in the hiring process, and candidates “want reassurance that those tools are capturing their skills and capabilities accurately and fairly.” SHL research shows that 59% of workers believe AI is increasing bias and 66% believe employers should reveal when AI is used in the hiring process. So how can organizations leverage these emerging tools while simultaneously ensuring a positive candidate experience?Nelesen cautions against relying too heavily on AI without also incorporating governance, transparency, change management practices, and human oversight. “It’s really easy to get overly focused on the automation capability,” he said, acknowledging that poor implementation of AI can inadvertently scale risks by amplifying existing bias and causing inconsistency.Successfully integrating technology into the hiring process requires companies to understand how candidates will engage with the tools, along with their expectations and fears, which he expects to result in intentional strategies for technology selection.“I think we should over-index on the human side of the equation,” Nelesen said, “rather than just being wowed by the promise that AI can deliver in terms of driving scale and efficiency.”As organizations continue to embrace AI, they will need to prioritize AI readiness among their candidates. SHL research shows that only 48% of employees believe their workplace is AI ready, but this is a metric best measured through behavior—not just employee perception.Based on data collected from millions of employees around the world, SHL developed a behavioral framework that predicts high performance in an AI-enabled environment. Factors like AI literacy, analytical ability, continuous learning, and AI promotion break down into competencies such as AI output evaluation, value creation, critical thinking, and decision-making amid uncertainty. Rather than getting too caught up in tool-specific, rapidly changing skillsets, he says that hiring for these foundational, lasting skills like critical thinking, adaptability, and embracing new technology can be more meaningful. Even better? Combine the two. “I’m not saying that we should walk away from hiring profiles that are steeped in job-specific skills. There are ways to layer in these AI-readiness skills on top of those skills.”The research also shows that new graduates and tenured professional pools bring different, complementary sets of AI-readiness skills to the table. Nelesen encourages leaders not to dismiss either population outright based on perceived limitations—instead look for ways to integrate these teams for maximum impact.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photo by Thai Liang Lim/iStock)
Modernizing Talent Acquisition for a Better Applicant Experience
BY Jessica Swenson April 03, 2026“How do we spend less time in front of our computers doing those manual tasks, and instead get in front of candidates and clients, which is where people really like to spend their time?” asked Catie Brand, SVP of HR global RPO & recruitment solutions at LHH. It’s a question Brand is working to answer at her organization, amid rising application volumes in recent years that have forced recruiting teams to do more with the same or fewer resources.Between increased volume, fake applicants, and the manual demands of the end-to-end recruiting process, teams are looking for ways to improve their efficiency without sacrificing the human aspects of recruiting. This was the topic of an executive panel at From Day One’s NYC half-day talent acquisition conference, moderated by HR Brew senior reporter Courtney Vinopal.The introduction of AI is helping to reshape recruiting workflows, improving efficiency and productivity while reducing the manual task load. There are an overwhelming number of AI solutions on the market—how can leaders choose the best option for their company?Smaller organizations with smaller budgets need to carefully assess their needs, says Jean-Luc Charles, VP of people & culture for EILEEN FISHER. They can also start with free tools and incremental upgrades rather than large enterprise projects. Eileen Fisher’s approach is “really thinking about the use, and how we’re going to connect that to a return on investment.”Brand encourages a focus on the business problem to avoid piloting incompatible platforms. She also suggests prioritizing tools that elevate the candidate experience. “We really try to focus on how we can leverage AI to provide an excellent candidate experience—surface the real human beings, and then really care for them throughout the process whether they’re hired or not.”Panelists spoke about "Modernizing Talent Acquisition for a Better Applicant Experience"Noting that ROI in this space can be hard to quantify, Brand says that with the use of AI tools, her team’s client interaction and market trend tracking KPIs “have all gone up because they’re spending less time on things that are really manual.” IBM reduced the scope of repetitive HR tasks by implementing an internal AI assistant. Carl Bernadotte, global head of executive search and talent acquisition leader for IBM, shared that while there was initially dissatisfaction from employees and recruiters, “over time as adoption [increased] and the models got smarter, those employee engagement scores started to go back up. It drastically allowed us to reduce our footprint, but increased our efficiency.” AI tools can bring unintended bias into the hiring process. Charles suggests working with vendor partners to understand details like source training data, known algorithmic bias, and model behavior. “I think that in our capacity with talent, we have a real responsibility, you know, to kick the tires, to lift up the hood, to ask the hard questions,” he said.This potential bias can also impact early talent candidates, making it crucial for them to find ways to differentiate themselves. Fathima Jaffer, VP & head of early talent at TD, advises these individuals to show intentionality as they pursue new roles. Rather than using the “spray and pray” resume approach, attending information sessions, networking with recruiters, and following up after career fairs can help offset some of the common obstacles in today’s market.Charles also suggests that candidates differentiate themselves through self-awareness, authenticity, and genuine connection. “We want to encourage people to think about what's particular to you. How can you offer your story? And that’s a lot about getting to know yourself.”While AI can accelerate processes and create efficiency for hiring teams, especially when faced with massive application volumes, some industries have strict regulations, and it’s important not to sacrifice the candidate experience. TD treats AI as augmentation rather than automation, says Jaffer, by starting with low-risk efficiency implementations at a safe pace. The company still relies on resume reviews conducted by humans, especially for early talent. “We are finding, what is that right balance between human and technology and the efficiency that that technology will bring?” she said. “We need that efficiency, but [need to do] it in a way that does not erode that candidate experience.”Bernadotte also advocates for a balance between AI experimentation and human interaction. “At the very core of every experience, we have to focus on the things that are uniquely human that we can do, and where do we add value?”Companies should focus on places where person-to-person contact is required, such as talent pipeline development, candidate conversations, and consultation with hiring managers, he says, saving AI tools for tasks that support productivity and scale.It’s clear that there is a place for AI in the TA process, but trends among panelist companies show that human involvement continues to be an integral part of the recruiting and hiring process.Charles tells his team that, with their capabilities for self-awareness, insight, and authentic human connection, they themselves are the tool. “As talent professionals, we need to continually upskill, not just in the technical aspects, but in the strategic—in our own connection with ourselves.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.
From Organizational Values to Employee Experience: Making Culture Tangible
BY Jessica Swenson March 18, 2026Creating an experience that your customers want begins with your employees, says Marc Paulenich, CEO at Hart, and it’s necessary to build a strategy that connects the two. Misaligned company values and broken policy promises can erode employee trust—a rising issue in today’s workplace, he says.“If you’re going to move an employee along this continuum from apathy to advocacy, you have to demonstrate with real proof, real evidence, those values being lived and ultimately shown, rather than told.” Paulenich said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Washington D.C. conference moderated by Morning Brew HR reporter Kristen Parisi.Flexibility and Care for EmployeesSome may have the impression that organizational empathy and flexibility so popular during the pandemic has declined in recent years, but panelists agree that those values aren’t gone, they’ve just shifted in response to evolving business needs.Dr. LaTricia Frederick, global head of executive talent management at Cisco, says that earlier-career employees might not have inherent connection with their peers. Because of this, empathy for these employees needs shows up as intentional connection that rebuilds in-person relationships. “We actually want people to be connected to each other, to know each other, to be able to rely on one another.” When economic changes force adjustments in business models and financial realities, it can impact established programs and options. So, “what may look like a decrease in empathy is a change in business models,” said Cari Bohley, VP of talent management at Peraton.This introduces a new question. “Given that’s what is driving organizational behavior, how do we maintain the empathy? How do we meet our employees where they are?” One way that Peraton executed on this value was changing its EAP provider; utilization skyrocketed after the change.Leaders spoke about "From Organizational Values to Employee Experience: Making Culture Tangible" during the executive panel discussion Another key way to demonstrate company values is through flexibility for employees’ unique needs. Carlee Wolfe, AVP of leader development and organizational effectiveness for Hyatt, acknowledged that flexibility options vary based on role and emphasized localized care policies. “How are you understanding your employees differently and meeting them where their needs are? Maybe you have things already at the system level, but also—where can people lean in at the local level?”Paulenich recommends stewarding your employer brand as you would your external brand. Continued care and consistency during times of employee adversity is one way to do that. “Employees oftentimes aren’t looking for an ideology, they’re just looking for some coherence and consistency between what you say you’re going to do and what you actually did,” he said. “So ground yourself in what those values are going to be, hold true to them, and then reinforce that consistently across the organization.”Workforce Enablement With AIAI-generated job insecurity can add a new anxiety for employees, but Hyatt frames AI as a human-centered skill development experience rather than a play for workforce reduction. “AI is a piece of our commitment to care around developing skills, leveraging and inserting it where your role is,” said Wolfe.Cisco seeks to build AI fluency across the organization so everyone can understand its relevance and build skills. “We wanted to create a curriculum that allowed people to become fluent in AI, to understand what it is and what it offers,” Frederick said. To that end, the company has rolled out a multi-module companywide e-learning that includes baseline AI education along with a prompt library, low-stakes challenges, and function-specific prompt practice opportunities.Peraton also runs AI literacy academies, one for baseline knowledge and one for advanced technical team members, says Bohley. “We needed to give them access to training so they can understand how AI can enable the work that they do, how it can make their lives easier, and what some of the ethical AI guardrails are.”Paulenich sees AI training as a values test. To demonstrate investment in AI and commitment to innovation, companies need to make time for employees to learn. “This is a moment to say, are we going to stand behind that? Are we going to carve out the time for people to learn it? Are we going to take away some of the barriers to learning?”While many companies have structured standalone programs for broader experimentation, like Cisco’s sandbox days and quarterly planned learning time, others integrate AI through short, accessible learning moments that impact daily interactions. Wolfe suggests inserting AI into real workflows, providing ready-to-use prompts, and modeling AI use in live settings. Resistance to ChangeBohley reframes AI resistance as helpful data. “Resistance is the signal, not the problem. The problem is that we haven’t effectively communicated what the change is, what the value is associated with the change, how the change can improve, what you do.”Conducting listening sessions and asking real questions can reduce change fatigue by giving employees a sense of co-creating the process, says Paulenich. “By having that dialogue early on, people take ownership; it feels less like something that’s being put on them, and more like something they’re part of.”Grassroots structures like AI committees and champions can also help neutralize resistance. Cisco leverages early adopters and champions to generate excitement and engagement among team members. Peraton’s Community of Practice provides a place for interested employees to learn via speakers and other programming, and bring that information back to their teams.Looking forward, Frederick sees AI as a tool to create capacity for greater investment in relationships. “Trust and connection are going to be that much more important, and we have to use AI to help us build capacity so that we have more opportunity to build on the trust and connection that we have.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Thriving Through Change: Mindsets for the Future of Work
BY Jessica Swenson March 10, 2026“Regardless of what kind of change processes you have in place, an organization’s culture needs the right mindset for change in order for any of them to be effective,” said Carissa Romero, PhD, the co-founder of Paradigm. “Specifically, an organization needs a mindset focused on learning, innovation and growth, known in research as a growth mindset.”In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s February virtual conference, Romero discussed how companies can embrace a growth mindset to improve their ability to adapt, perform, and thrive during rapid change.The “change muscle” of an organization, as Romero calls it, represents how people feel about change and how that influences employee engagement and productivity. This can be a broader reflection of the company’s readiness to learn, adapt, and thrive through uncertainty.In today’s business environment, with ongoing economic shifts, multigenerational workforces, and rapid AI adoption reshaping how work is done, the pace and volume of change is not likely to slow down. Romero says that this reality “forces [talent and culture leaders] to reexamine two things: the type of talent and the type of culture that is going to enable high performance.”Referencing a World Economic Forum report on key workforce skills, Romero says the abilities to adapt and to leverage interpersonal and leadership skills are increasingly critical as companies globalize and become more diverse. Capabilities like resilience, flexibility, agility, empathy, social influence, and active listening ensure that people can adapt and collaborate during ongoing shifts in the workplace.Carissa Romero, co-founder of Paradigm, led the session (company photo)Even more important than individual skills, says Romero, is organizational culture. This is where a growth mindset comes in—embedding this mindset into an organization helps employees learn and embody “the belief that change is possible, the idea that people, teams, and organizations can adapt and get better.” She cited research from the 1980s and 1990s showing that “when people approach work with a growth mindset, they perform better.” This happens because rather than focusing on proving themselves, she says, people with this mindset tend to focus on continuous learning. They see challenge and change as “essential parts of the learning process” rather than signs of failure or inability.Early mindset research assumed that a person’s mindset was an internal trait that they carried with them; it influenced their approach to work across environments and organizations. More recent research challenges that assumption by showing that workplace culture can influence the individual’s mindset. “I think the fact that cultures bring out these mindsets is really good news for organizations,” said Romero, “Because that means the goal is not to identify every single individual’s mindset and try to shift them to be more growth or to try to hire a bunch of growth mindset folks. The goal is to really then create an environment that helps people show up and lead with that growth mindset.”When employees know that their leaders believe people can improve and grow, it gives them a sense of psychological safety that promotes innovation, collaboration, and experimentation, driving learning and long-term performance. “Companies that are able to successfully shift their culture to be a bit more growth-oriented, you are going to see more of these benefits unlocked.”Romero offers four key strategies for leaders looking to make this shift in their organizations. First, embrace humility. Leadership behavior sets the tone, and leaders who exhibit humility about their challenges or mistakes can help employees be more open to risk-taking and experimentation.Next, reinforce growth behaviors like new decision strategies, learning processes, research, or experimentation through feedback and recognition. She shared the story of an oil rig experiencing significant financial loss and safety incidents. Leaders sought a shift from a culture of machismo to one where employees could admit and learn from their mistakes.“What they did is start giving out rewards and celebrating really big failures.” she said. This change in culture led to an 84% decline in accident rates while increasing productivity, efficiency, and reliability. “Adapting to failure is not something that happens despite high performance. It is actually a critical driver of being able to innovate and achieve high performance.”Effective mentorship is another key approach. “What do the best mentors do differently than everyone else? They do two things simultaneously. They set very high standards because they believe it is possible for people to meet those standards, but they give people the support to actually meet those standards.”By setting high expectations, even in times of rapid change, and then offering coaching and resources that help people meet those expectations, you provide tangible support that “can help teams see challenges not as risks to avoid, but really as opportunities to grow.”Lastly, to create a culture of continuous learning, shift beyond training programs and skill-building to system-level change. This type of change “happens when organizations pair growth-oriented leadership behaviors with the right infrastructure.”By building environments where culture, leadership, and systems work together to reinforce growth mindset behaviors, companies can boost their organizational resiliency and give employees the freedom to grow through innovation and collaboration.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Paradigm, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photo by Pakorn Supajitsoontorn/iStock)
From Recruiting to Communication: How HR Leaders Can Leverage AI to Transform Their Work
BY Jessica Swenson February 24, 2026“Automation has disrupted work for decades,” said Elise Furlan, president and chief people & legal officer, North America, for SICK Sensor Intelligence. However, with the rapid advent of AI tools in the modern workplace, she says companies need to be aware of them to avoid obsolescence.How can HR leaders engage with these technologies and use them to shift focus to higher-value tasks? That was the topic of an executive panel moderated by former KHOU-TV news anchor Shern-Min Chow at From Day One’s Houston conference.Furlan says that AI transforms the workplace by freeing people from tedious and dangerous tasks—though it can, and likely will, cause turnover.Good employers will pivot and help elevate their employees through structured development opportunities, but employees also have to engage in the process. “In my opinion, humans are brilliant and sensitive and creative and will not be replaced by AI. But if your job is highly redundant or administrative, you have to upskill, and you have to own it,” she said. Erinn McMahon, VP of career transition & mobility at LHH, also thinks that individuals need to own their career advancement, with mobility and upskilling support from their employers. Throughout the employee’s lifecycle, she says, companies need to “give them the opportunity to learn new skills, to be able to take what they’ve done and maybe pivot it into something new that will be valuable to the organization.” While AI-powered robots may reduce issues inherent to human workers in manufacturing, Chris DeVault, VP of HR for Daikin Comfort Technologies, doesn’t believe that they can match human nimbleness and discernment. Employers have a social imperative to “eliminate repetitive jobs and get [employees] to the point where they are doing things that are far more rewarding,” he said. Governance ProtocolsJill Zhang, global head of total rewards for SLB, spoke about the company’s very deliberate approach to AI adoption, which focuses on protecting employee and client data. All AI tools are pre-trained models connected only to approved data sources and trained on internal databases.“We want to increase AI literacy across the organization. But we are also quite intentional about doing this responsibly and ethically. So right now, we rely on enterprise-approved tools that are deployed within controlled internal environments for people to use as efficiency tools,” she said. Journalist Shern-Min Chow moderated the session about "How HR Leaders Can Leverage AI to Make Their Work More Effective and Fulfilling"Echoing the need for proactive AI policies and governance, Lynn Moffett, VP of HR at BMC, cautions that without approved tools, employees may use external tools like ChatGPT. “You need to have your policies in place, and you should also be providing the tools to your employees to be able to utilize your AI,” she said. “It is really important that companies help guide it in the way that they want for that governance structure to hold true.”Recruiting and Hiring Moffett’s team uses AI for candidate sourcing, assessment, and interview scheduling. She also partnered with BMC’s IT team to build an in-house tool that detects AI-generated resume content. “It helps with ensuring we’ve got additional authenticity and consistency,” she said.If a candidate’s resume is flagged for high AI usage, managers can query the company’s interview question banks to help them dig deeper into the candidate’s experience or request guidance on customized interview structures. Using these question banks, Moffett says, allows the company to “know that we’ve got our consistent corporate principles being applied, in terms of our overall leveling from a job perspective.”Daikin’s new cloud-based ATS easily integrates with AI tools to analyze and process a high volume of resumes, says DeVault, and AI-driven bot interviews are increasingly realistic. However, his staffing teams are not concerned about job loss due to these systems.“This is just the gateway to get the right people to them, so that they can get the right people to the hiring managers. And it’s really simplified their day.”Internal CommunicationCompanies use AI tools to streamline internal communication as well, such as analyzing employee survey comments and translating team-to-team language.“Using AI to help filter and sort through and understand comments, especially when you’ve got a lot of comments coming at you, is a wonderful use of the tool,” said Moffett. HR business partners at BMC use AI search tools to analyze thousands of survey comments, enabling them to better support their partner teams.With employees across more than 100 countries, Daikin’s use of AI translation tools has transformed internal communications, DeVault says. Not only have these tools helped teams communicate meaningfully, but they have also boosted frontline engagement by allowing Daikin’s interpretation team to “go on the shop floor and actually work hand-in-hand with folks versus sitting on endless [video] calls.” The Future of WorkDeVault says “We are in a machine learning era, and we have to be better than the machine.” He tries to ensure that his team is upskilled and ready for the next challenge, aided in part by Daikin’s continuous internal development programs and advanced skills training. “There are things that will never be able to be done by machines, even from a machine logic perspective. And for those employees that have an interest, there is an infinite amount of training that we're giving them every day.”While we don’t yet know precisely how workplaces will change and what the jobs of the future will be, McMahon says it’s essential to promote curiosity and confidence while offering psychological safety. She urges leaders to “create an environment where people are curious enough to want to try something new and feel strong enough about their capabilities to try new things.” Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Effective Marketing in Lean Times: Creative Approaches to Delivering Value
BY Jessica Swenson February 18, 2026“When you have a really lean budget, learning how to speak the language of your C-suite will either stop your budget from getting cut more, or potentially get you back to earning a little bit more of that budget,” said Jessica Bryant, SVP of marketing for NCR Voyix. During times of economic uncertainty, organizations place increased scrutiny on strategies and budgets—even those in marketing.Driving marketing value in a challenging economy was the topic of an executive panel discussion moderated by marketing journalist Lisa Lacy at From Day One’s Atlanta marketing conference.To show the distinct value of her team’s work, Bryant has shifted her C-suite reporting from vanity metrics like impressions and traffic to data that demonstrates revenue impact. “I took a different tack and brought it down the funnel to talk about the things marketing is doing that are actually driving your pipeline, or increasing your sales velocity, or increasing your cycles. And that changed the conversation,” she said.Katie Conrad, general manager of customer performance and insights at Delta, went a similar route. By “being the experts in what we’re doing, that changes customer behavior,” Conrad and team use data points to focus on and illustrate those changes.Since Covid and beyond, companies have responded to budget pressures in a variety of ways as the economy evolves. Delta has leaned into known growth areas, Conrad says, such as high-performing demographics and segments, as well as places where customers are already signaling purchase intent. Once those are identified, from a channel perspective she asks, “How do you truly make sure that whatever is driving that purchase, whether through social commerce or paid search, is protected right before the purchase?”The panelists explored how marketing teams can sustain growth and prove value when budgets tightenRelying on proven partners to ensure stability during new product launches is an approach that Anya Dawkins Johnson, VP of marketing and commercial strategy at TNT Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery, has adopted. “Using tried and true partners is the way that we've flexed into that. Knowing what works, aligning with partners where there are measurement studies and things like that attached.”Johnson also ensures clear ROI reporting to reassure senior leaders and uses hyper-targeted marketing to keep sports relevant to its audience. “We live in a world where consumption shifts are happening in real-time,” she said. “It’s good to advertise in the cable ecosystem, but also outside of it. And then, of course, social is another way to be hyper-targeted. Be where your fans are and remind them of what we have on our suite of networks.”Innovation With Minimal RiskThere are many ways to test new campaigns and processes with minimal financial or business risk. Conrad suggests involving data teams up front and using their forecasting capabilities to estimate potential impact. Johnson recommends leveraging beta opportunities, in part because of built-in perks or data reporting. TNT Sports works with partners running beta programs to experiment with new advertising concepts. “Usually there are some perks that come along with being one of the first to try something. And usually there’s a measurement study associated with it, because they want to see if it works and how we like it as well.”“Start small and fail fast,” said Bryant, advocating for contained experimentation. “Figure out what you want to measure, define it clearly, and measure that metric, then if you don’t see the change [you want], fail fast. Try something different.” There’s also more time in the day to be innovative in the age of AI. Panelists agreed that generative AI adds value by eliminating low-level tasks and accelerating work on higher-value ones.Bryant says the company utilizes AI to reduce its reliance on agency partners for concepting and in-house asset production, but also cautions against overuse or decision-making. Many team meetings start with AI insights, which she says “is great, but I also want that creativity and that authenticity from humans as well, as our brand is unique. AI doesn’t necessarily know everything about our brand yet, so we need to be careful within that.”There are two primary use cases for AI at Delta, says Conrad: creative efficiencies and analytics. Her team uses Adobe tools to “pull and synthesize insights for the everyday marketer” while also empowering the rest of the analytics department through dashboard access.The sameness of AI outputs will only emerge if broader strategy is outsourced to AI. “If you come in with a strategy based on your knowledge and expertise in the brand, it shouldn’t,” Conrad said.Bryant cautions that “untrained marketers [can] create sameness” as well. However, once marketers are trained in prompt engineering, she agrees that “if your prompt has nuance, if it has originality, if it has that untapped framing that only your brand can have, then that sameness goes away 100%.”Citing a 600% year-over-year jump in the use of AI for Cyber Monday shopping and trip planning, content plans need to expand from traditional SEO to include generative engine optimization (GEO), says Conrad. Delta is adjusting its paid search parameters to broader terms, she says, to allow for flexibility in AI interpretation.Reconsidering Priorities for Continued SuccessNCR Voyix has reduced its spend on large-scale video production in the last 18 months, says Bryant, favoring shorter, more authentic content. This shift has resulted in lower production costs, but has also seen stronger performance. “That has really worked very well for us, and actually outperformed a lot of the bigger things that we were doing.”Conrad endorses optimizing the mix of marketing campaigns and channels. Fewer, more focused campaigns will be more effective, she says, than a larger volume of ad-hoc campaigns, ensuring the impact of your media spend.Skills like curiosity and lifelong learning are crucial to the future of marketing as well, said Johnson. “Being an eternal learner will never hurt you, whether it’s AI or whatever the next thing is, there will always be something [to learn].” Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Holistic and Inclusive Well-Being Strategies for a Multigenerational Workforce
BY Jessica Swenson February 17, 2026With 47,000 associates across 25 states and ranging in age from 15 to 70-plus, Karen Wilkins, VP of benefits for Waffle House, has experience supporting a diverse, multigenerational workforce. “The challenge is, how do we meet them?” she said. “How do we figure out what they need, what they want, how do we best take care of them, and how do we communicate?” she said during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Atlanta conference.As today’s workforce continues to grow and diversify across generations, employers are faced with a new challenge: how to create benefits and well-being programs that can meet a variety of needs? The session among experts was moderated by Kelly Yamanouchi, business team lead at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Leaders Make Well-Being WorkLeadership participation in the benefits programs helps drive employee engagement as well, says Yasmin Meneses, dietitian and manager of consultant relations with Nutrium. If upper management engages in the programs and clearly knows what is offered, they’re more likely to communicate with their employees about them. Meneses suggests that clients get their leadership teams involved “because it's really going to drive the success of whatever well-being program you have in place today.”Anant Garg, global VP of HR at BD, says that managers, not policies, are the number one driver of employee well-being. “We need to advocate for the principle that driving results and driving well-being are not mutually exclusive,” he said. If you don’t invest in good, effective managers who thrive at both, it doesn’t matter how good your benefits plan is, you won’t be able to drive holistic well-being for your employees.Panelists shared how they support a diverse and multigenerational workforce The impact of engaged, empathetic leadership is something that Melanie Moore, Honeywell’s inclusion and engagement director, is personally familiar with. After Moore’s breast cancer diagnosis, her manager prioritized her health over her work and it completely changed the shape of her treatment and recovery. “Having a manager who is understanding and shows that care and concern for you makes a complete difference in how you even go through that journey,” she said.With these perspectives in mind, how can employers ensure that their company cultures and benefit programming are built to suit multigenerational teams? Moore suggests tuning into employee workplace networks to help identify real day-to-day employee needs. This is how Honeywell learned that new parents were seeking a solution to ship breast milk after they returned to work and travel, and led to the recent launch of a new program designed to meet this need.A Proactive Approach to WellnessMeneses suggests a shift to a proactive approach, emphasizing the importance of reframing nutrition and fitness, which apply to everyone, as critical aspects of preventive care. While weight loss is a critical piece of the puzzle, she cautions against making it the sole focus. “It’s not just about that. It’s about holistic well-being and making sure that we’re inclusive of the entire population, and not just those who are looking to lose weight.” Lisa Keenan, regional VP of sales for One Medical, acknowledges that preventive healthcare “is not one size fits all. So we evolved to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of all generations,” she said. Keenan highlighted some of One Medical’s customized offerings: mental and sexual healthcare and family planning for millennials, perimenopause and menopause care for Gen X, and cognitive screenings and fall prevention education for older generations, all available via each age group’s preferred delivery methods, she says. To address the unique challenges of its frontline workers, Waffle House has expanded security and safety training and worked to reduce out-of-pocket employee healthcare costs. “Anyone on the health plan can use the free telehealth visits and get their prescriptions—most are generic—at no cost to them,” said Wilkins. Her team is also known for assisting employees in locating housing, emergency shelter, or financial resources, she says. The discussion underscored that there is no single blueprint for supporting a multigenerational workforce. What matters most is a willingness to listen, adapt, and lead with empathy, recognizing that well-being is not a static offering but an ongoing commitment. When organizations treat well-being as core to how work gets done, benefits programs become more than resources. They become a signal to employees that they are supported at every stage of their lives and careers.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)
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)
Culture That’s Real: Bringing Company Values to Life
BY Jessica Swenson December 18, 2025“Everyone wants to have a good culture, but they don’t really understand how much time and energy and effort it takes,” said Bert Hensley, chairman and CEO of Morgan Samuels Company. He believes that employees should be empowered to co-create and shape the culture in which they work.During a panel at From Day One’s Miami conference, moderated by Miami Herald business reporter Michael Butler, Hensley and other executive leaders discussed how organizations can cultivate cultures that embody the company’s values while both challenging and supporting employees.Companies need to determine “what kind of organization they want to be, and what kind of people need to be a part of it,” said Jonathan Méndez, head of executive search and HR business partner at Kellanova. Ensuring that talent aligns with the company’s purpose is key to preventing cultural tension.This knowledge is also crucial for any executive search and other new talent decisions. Identifying key business objectives, knowing the requisite skills and experience, and being aware of cultural considerations are vital to finding candidates that share the company’s values, says Hensley. He recommends in-depth, in-person meetings with teams seeking new talent to better understand how they interface and operate before assessing or recommending candidates.Referencing a shared ownership model emerging at his company, William (B.J.) Warren, the head of HR effectiveness at Bayer, says they are seeking to remove hierarchical roadblocks and empower the people closest to the customer to take on decision-making. This allows the relevant groups to determine “what is it that best meets the needs of [our] customers, versus the challenge of ‘who do I need to report to or get approval from in order to really take those decisions?’”Belonging & Safety Employees need to feel safe and seen in order to have a sense of belonging in the workplace. Abbe Partee, DHL Supply Chain’s head of culture and inclusion, oversaw the development and launch of the company’s Belonging at Work program. This program allows for deeper conversation and connection through training focused on inclusion and psychological safety, and it has delivered a lift in employee engagement and Great Place to Work scores.“We want you to feel that you’re connected, you contribute, you’re valued, and that’s where you get this sense of belonging. But it’s not just up to the leaders to create the culture of belonging. It’s up to everybody,” she said. By holding all employees accountable not only to performance, but to behavior, DHL maintains clear focus on its values of respect and results. “If you get results without respect, you are not part of this culture.”Panelists spoke about "Culture That’s Real: Translating Company Values Into Everyday Reality" during the sessionAt the same time, advises Méndez, while a culture steeped in niceness can attract and retain talent, too much focus on being nice can inhibit healthy conflict and innovation. To offset the influence of Midwest nice culture at Kellanova, he says, the company has focused on amplifying its core values while introducing a new one: courage. They “[bring in] talent that has those values and has that courageous mentality, but in the day-to-day work we try to encourage that type of behavior to really push the organization forward.”Centering diversity initiatives on the customer base and business results is another way to realize a company’s values around belonging and safety. Hensley’s executive searches have a 40% diversity rate (exceeding the industry average of 12%) because they search more broadly for the correct fit for a role rather than hiring for diversity quotas. “Diversity works best when integrated into business operations, not treated as an add-on,” said Warren.Partee and Méndez agreed that the employee population and upper-level leadership—including the C-suite—need to reflect the customer base that an organization serves. “There’s more innovation, there’s more creativity, there’s better problem solving. When you have diversity at all levels of the organization, it just makes sense for your business,” said Partee.Restoring HRBP CredibilityAcknowledging that HR is sometimes viewed primarily as a policy enforcer, several panelists agreed that HR teams need to act as business partners first to rebuild credibility and confidence in the function. In his first three weeks with Kellanova, Méndez met with all 200 of his team members. “It was an incredible learning opportunity to understand the business and the people, and if you understand your people first you’re able to start breaking down that barrier.” Knowing the pain points and performance impacts of the business gives HR leaders credibility and allows them to provide better input.To ensure that culture flows through all levels in an organization, executives need to put themselves in situations where they are “shoulder-to-shoulder with their employees,” Méndez said, and encourage their leadership teams to do the same. “That visibility creates trust. If you don’t have that visibility, and if you’re in that ivory tower, in your office with the door locked, you’re not going to ever have that relationship.”Partee has added board-level sponsors to employee resource groups at DHL, putting those senior leaders in a position to “spend much more time with people of different identity groups, listening to them, hearing about what their challenges could be, and getting a different perspective.” Warren suggests expanding the use of 360-degree reviews and peer feedback to help close performance and communication gaps. He also cautions that prioritizing systems that check boxes rather than prioritizing people can complicate processes and erode trust. Historically Bayer has led its HR transformations with technology changes that enable processes, he says, but with their new self-organized team approach they are now “much more focused on the people first. The process and technology can follow.”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)
The Practical Power of AI in HR
BY Jessica Swenson December 03, 2025While human elements of leadership, storytelling, and empathy will always be essential in HR, the rapid evolution of AI technology has placed companies under continual pressure to integrate it into their daily operations—and fast. Many organizations focus their AI efforts on improving efficiency, which is undoubtedly a valuable approach. Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain, uses AI at her organization to reduce the content generation time for its annual workplace culture report from 30 hours to six hours. Jason Ashlock, Kuehne + Nagel’s global head of organizational development, avoids using AI for conceptual work but has seen it utilized for task-based activities, such as slide design and dashboard updates.But Piyush Sarode, global head of HR for worldwide markets and pharmaceuticals at Bayer, believes that companies should focus on a broader strategic purpose and business objective than just efficiency. Bayer utilized AI to enhance training for its pharmaceutical sales representatives over the past 18 months, reducing training time by 80% and accelerating sales representatives’ access to potential clients. “Instead of a few days or a few weeks, [credentialing] can happen in as short a time as one hour,” he said during a panel discussion moderated by technology writer and editor Sage Lazzaro at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference. “Think of the implication of this—it has freed up thousands of internal hours and [created] agility and speed for the business to deliver those outcomes,” said Sarode. Panelists spoke about "How HR Leaders Can Leverage AI to Make Their Work More Effective and Fulfilling"Yancey hopes to see HR leaders take the initiative to recommend where their organization could utilize AI and where humans should continue to lead. “I’d love to see HR leaders be the first to the table with those plans,” she said.Panelists had differing ideas on the best route to select and integrate AI technology successfully. Ashlock and team have “found the most success when the business, IT, HR, and P&L owners have cooperated around a clear definition of an identifiable use case that solves a known problem.” Then they upskill the associated team on the AI solution.Josh Newman, WPP’s global head of people strategy and experience, says that HR tends to focus more on training rather than business outcomes; he recommends starting with known deliverables and work architecture. “If you’re trying to start by identifying use cases for specific roles, you’re probably [not understanding] what the deliverables are and how they are made,” he said. “If you map out the work architecture, you can then pinpoint certain use cases to unlock capacity and give people more time to spend on higher-value work,” said Newman. Framing AI maturity in three stages—experimentation, productivity, and net-new innovation—fassforward CEO Gavin McMahon cautioned against spending too much time focused on productivity and not enough on innovation. To promote innovation, he suggests that curiosity and adaptability are key traits to cultivate in employees. “If AI automates some work, and makes us better at [other] pieces of work, it’s going to be really difficult for us to think about that net-new way of doing things,” McMahon said.According to Sarode, vision-setting and system-level thinking are crucial steps that allow teams to architect and catalyze innovative AI solutions. “It requires that, at some point in time, you really look at the system and ask, ‘What’s a bold vision on how we can be a better version of ourselves?’”Urging leaders to reflect on how they want their work or organization to be before rushing to implementation, Ashlock emphasized the importance of balancing vision with execution. “We don’t get many chances in a lifetime to be part of an epic, defining technological shift,” he said. Despite being at such an inflection point right now, many organizations are operating at top speed under enormous pressure without considering what they are creating for the future.On the topic of AI risk, governance, and guardrails, Yancey drew parallels to the early bring your own device model, which led to cybersecurity issues on corporate systems, and stated that this needs to be a major area of focus over the next couple of years. The average person doesn’t “think like an owner,” she said, “so they don’t think twice when they’re putting customer information, product information, and sales information” into AI systems that the enterprise may not even have approved.Panelists agreed that AI has a place in talent acquisition—primarily to streamline transactional, task-based actions—but, as Sarode said, human oversight remains vital to the recruiting and hiring process. “Thinking about AI as a replacement for a person is dead wrong,” said McMahon. “Thinking about it as something that can do some tasks intelligently for you is dead right.”Ashlock offered a closing piece of advice to HR professionals: “Ask [yourselves] three questions about any potential AI intervention, application, or implementation: does it build capability? Does it build clarity? And does it build care?”McMahon recommends using your anxiety as motivation to learn “as much as you can, as quick as you can.” You don’t need to be an expert, he says; the key is to start learning and experimenting now.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Balancing Cost, Impact, and Personalization in Employee Benefits
BY Jessica Swenson November 19, 2025In the face of steadily rising healthcare costs, innovation in benefits programming is key to meeting the evolving needs of today’s workforce. At From Day One’s Boston conference, employee benefits leaders discussed the innovative approaches some companies are taking to provide relevant benefits to their employee populations while attempting to neutralize cost.By evolving its employee feedback program from an annual survey to a multi-layered employee listening strategy, Marina Vassilev, VP and head of total rewards and performance at Schneider Electric, has created an ongoing conversation that has boosted employee trust in its benefits strategy. “Now we are using different channels and different tools to get employee feedback, and account for that as we build our strategy. We are also partnering with an organization that looks at how our employees value our benefits,” she said. Schneider’s shift from broad industry benchmarking to a more personalized approach informed by employee pulse surveys, focus groups, and quarterly office hours allows Vassilev to stay closely connected to employees and their needs.Highlighting the challenge of offering robust benefit plans without causing confusion, Laura Welz, VP of U.S. total rewards at Sun Life says that it is essential to make benefits less intimidating through simplified communication.She recently facilitated the company’s first employee panel focused on benefit spending and allocation, which she believes helped demystify the process for others. “Having other employees hear directly from their peers was a great way to simplify and make things feel a little more manageable, so folks understood that it’s not as complicated as it may seem.”Proactive Mental Health Support“It’s easy, in a world where constant transformation and new global events are taking up the news, to forget that we’re in a mental health crisis,” said Nick Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Unmind. Taylor is a strong advocate for rethinking mental health as a strategic performance priority rather than something to be treated only in a state of crisis. “Within any population in this room, for 75% of the workforce, we should be focusing on promoting well-being.” He added that Harvard and Oxford Universities have recently published studies showing the correlation between employee well-being and organizational productivity.The session, titled, " In Employee Benefits, Balancing Cost Efficiency with Good Employee Outcomes" was moderated by Paris Alston, co-host, Morning Edition at WGBHAt Schneider and Sun Life, employees can utilize sabbatical programs that reinforce permission to fully disconnect from work and prioritize themselves and their families. Both companies find that these programs help them attract talent and boost retention while deriving other organizational benefits from improved employee well-being.“Employees are saying that they choose Schneider as an employer, and they stay with us as employees, because they’re looking forward to their [sabbatical]. So it’s clearly a retention and attraction lever for us,” said Vassilev. “It’s helping the business financially, and it’s allowing employees to focus on mental health and personal priorities.”“I think we all feel the sense of responsibility that things are going to fall apart if we’re not at work,” said Welz. “And it’s a bit freeing for employees to know that they can actually step away.” The program directly helps with talent recruitment and retention, she added, and helps maintain mental wellness. “There’s not a time that our employees don’t rave about the program.”Another tool helping employees get time back is AI. John Grossman, a physical therapist and clinical specialist at Sword Health, is grateful for the increased data and time that he receives from the company’s use of AI. Sword Health offers AI-powered home-based physical therapy solutions to its members. “It’s not taking me out of it; it’s giving me more information to be able to help these people, and makes it way more convenient for them.”Taylor calls AI “the new member of the multi-disciplinary team.” With clinical rigor, transparency, and in alignment with the World Health Organization’s guidelines for the ethical integration of AI, it could help bridge provider supply-demand gaps in preventive mental healthcare.Personalized Benefit Options While Maintaining a BudgetOne way that Schneider Electric employees gain some direct control over their benefit offerings is through the company’s Benefits Bucks program—a flexible credit that employees can allocate toward benefits that best suit their needs, like savings planning accounts, sabbatical programs, and additional PTO. “Everyone has different preferences and different needs,” said Vassilev. “When we give them that opportunity to make the selections that work best for them, we're being most useful for them and we're being mindful of our resources.” At Sword Health, Grossman understands that no two people are the same, and no two conditions are the same either. The company utilizes AI on its digital platform to ensure that everyone has offerings specific to their needs, he says. From women’s pelvic health to injury avoidance, and pain prevention, AI helps them personalize needs and “give them the exact tools, resources, support that they need to go through recovery.”To ensure a positive return on investment and mitigate growing costs, Vassilev takes a multi-layered approach to vendor management. “We look closely at the ROI they can bring to us, whether they’re a good fit for our ecosystem, and how we can integrate with them,” she said. By conducting regular RFP reviews and auditing existing contracts, Sun Life ensures it is getting the best value and modern offerings from its vendors. “It's really important that we are looking at the market, that we are making sure that we're getting not only the best services, technology platforms, but that we’re also getting the best prices,” said Welz.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)