Matching Employee Expectations to Economic Realities: Where Leaders Should Focus
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski January 07, 2026From expanded mental health support to virtual healthcare access, employers have adapted to employees’ evolving needs since Covid. But those offerings are only part of the picture. Many workers are also asking for more affordable healthcare benefits. How can employers respond to these requests, and what other forms of economic support do employees expect from company leaders?These concerns were addressed during an executive panel discussion moderated by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, business reporter with The Seattle Times, at From Day One’s December virtual conference. Ulu-Lani Boyanton started off the session by asking what the panel guests often hear from their employees regarding healthcare wants and needs. “Employees want comprehensive benefits that make showing up to work easier as they grow and raise their families and care for their personal health,” said Gianna Cruz, director of client success at Maven Clinic.“In our latest State of Women’s and Family Health Report, 69% of those who were surveyed said that they would take or have considered taking a new role or a new job because it offers better reproductive and family benefits to them and their families,” said Cruz.“I think what we’re really seeing now is a push to personalization,” said John Von Arb, VP of total rewards for Essentia Health. Expanding voluntary benefit strategies in addition to the core benefits offered is what people are now looking for, he says. “Generational differences within the workforce today do drive a lot of the conversation around what the needs are because one size does not fit all anymore,” he said.Kimberly Young, SVP of total rewards at Amentum, a global leader in innovative technology solutions and advanced engineering, highlighted the importance of affordability and a work-life balance as benefits sought after by employees. “Obviously affordability is the number one priority, so a lot of the feedback is targeted towards the escalating costs,” said Young. “From a premium perspective they want turnkey care for a much lower cost.” “And they want something that covers a work-life balance,” added Young. “We find ourselves today trying to balance all of that.” How Employee Needs Changed Post-CovidThe needs of employees and their economic concerns have also changed since Covid. For healthcare industry professional Von Arb, it’s undeniable that Covid played a big part in changes within his organization. It was a “game-changer” for the industry, he said. Mental health support became a focal point, with about 150 employees trained in peer-to-peer support, he said.Since Covid, clients now view Maven’s benefits as a core part of a strong, effective benefits package rather than a nice-to-have, says Cruz. There’s also more of a focus on overall access to care, and specifically access that might have been limited during Covid. In general, there’s a push for equitable access in a virtual setting at a global scale. Post-Covid, there’s been a greater emphasis on mental health and wellness, Young says, along with increased focus on activity and flexibility as many employees continue transitioning back to work. Meeting Employee Expectations Regarding BenefitsThe panelists shared a range of approaches to meeting employee expectations, from offering greater choice and flexibility in plans to providing holistic support, chronic disease management, and tools that support lifestyle changes.Panelists spoke about "Matching Employee Expectations to Economic Realities: Where Leaders Should Focus" during the virtual panel session (photo by From Day One)Essentia Health strives to handle much of its benefits in house from the health plan perspective, Von Arb says, while identifying gaps where additional support is needed. The organization continues to focus on chronic disease management, covering weight loss medications such as GLP-1s, and exploring options that support lifestyle and life management changes.The organization also “built out a more robust value-based design strategy,” he said. This is done by getting groups of leaders together from the various departments. Doing so helps to answer the question, “How do we get members to engage with their own health journey?”Young stated that choice and flexibility based on different plan designs along with a robust mental health program were some solutions her company has offered to employees. “We’ve tried to introduce a variety of benefits that touch all aspects of the employee experience,” said Young. Cruz added that employers are expanding women’s and family health benefits and that employees increasingly expect more holistic support. She is especially enthusiastic about Maven’s maternity program, which helps employees in rural or underserved areas access care and supports them throughout pregnancy and the post-pregnancy period.How Technology Plays a RoleTechnology is also changing workers’ support in a major way. “Technology extends the ability for individuals to access, not just care, but high quality care if they live in an area where access is limited for whatever reason,” said Cruz. “Clients really utilize Maven’s round-the-clock virtual support.” “We’re focused on data-driven personalized coordinated care and helping employers deliver that to their employees and we’re also really focused on offering a seamless patient experience,” said Cruz. Technology and AI can really help members with their journey. When AI is used, it can help employees navigate all the options from a healthcare perspective, says Young. Personalization is vital because everyone’s journey is different. But to be effective, it has to be employee friendly, Von Arb said. From an HR perspective, many AI tools have made progress in this area, though some payroll, benefits, and HR systems still lag in using AI to support the employee experience.Ultimately, the discussion underscored that effective benefits strategies are no longer about adding more offerings, but about designing systems that are accessible, affordable, and responsive to employees’ real lives. As expectations continue to evolve post-Covid, employers face growing pressure to listen closely, personalize thoughtfully, and leverage technology in ways that genuinely support health, well-being, and long-term economic security.Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photo by Benjamas Deekam/iStock)
Utilizing AI to Turn Employee Sentiment into a Strategic Advantage
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski December 15, 2025AI’s role has grown far beyond automation, reshaping how organizations generate insight and intelligence. That expansion brings new risks, but also new opportunities to use AI in ways that are ethical, human-centered, and effective.That balance is familiar to Shawn Overcast, general manager of enterprise solutions at Explorance. The global feedback and insights platform operates in more than 50 countries across five continents and has long focused on using AI to surface human potential, not replace it.During a thought leadership spotlight titled, “Responsible AI as the Intelligence Layer: Turning Employee Sentiment Into a Strategic Advantage” at From Day One’s Miami conference, Overcast shared her company’s background with AI and detailed how using this tool can and should be done in a responsible manner.Explorance started doing research and development with the AI space regarding machine learning about eight years ago. “We were at this before AI was cool,” said Overcast. Explorance launched its AI-centric solution, MLY, three years ago. Short for machine learning that answers the question why, the tool was deliberately developed to inform decisions about people as well as the actions taken with them, Overcast says.MLY reflects Explorance’s approach to responsible AI. The employee sentiment analysis tool helps organizations make sense of open-ended feedback, turning employee comments into insight and competitive advantage without losing the human context.Challenges With AI“With great potential comes great risk and great challenge,” said Overcast. Some problems with AI, says Overcast, include bias, transparency, data fragmentation, skill gaps, and privacy. “The data, the algorithms within AI, are only as fair as the data that it’s trained on,” said Overcast. “So, if there is bias in our hiring models, in our promotion data, for example, then the AI algorithm will carry with it inherent bias.”Shawn Overcast, general manager, enterprise solutions at Explorance, led the sessionThe transparency challenge deals with the black box theory, which is the inability to trace back as to why we’re getting the results we are. It’s often hard to trace it back and it’s important to do so to understand the source.Another AI challenge is data fragmentation. “I’ve been at this for a long time and that has always been a problem,” said Overcast. “Working with data silos is a real thing, a real challenge in our organizations, but it also presents a real challenge with being able to integrate all of that together,” Overcast said.Skill gaps also present a problem with AI use. “This is a real challenge for some organizations, because it’s not necessarily what we hired for,” said Overcast. “We hired more for the people aspect of the role, or the process aspect of the role, but not necessarily how to adopt new technology quickly.”Lastly, privacy is an extremely important issue and ultimate challenge at times with AI. Employee information must be protected, and businesses have to be cautious about how the collected data is used. As some of the challenges in contrast to what AI can provide, Overcast assures that these challenges aren’t ones that should cause us to step back, but rather insights that can help us do things with more thought. The 7 Principles of Responsible AIAs the HR team stands at the intersection of innovation and responsibility, it’s important to know how to pursue responsible AI. There are seven principles of responsible AI including the following: fairness and inclusion, transparency and interpretability, accountability and governance, accuracy and decision integrity, privacy and consent, purpose and human intent, and reliability and safety.“AI is not just a technology conversation, it is an ethical conversation, it is a mindset that we need to have, and these help us with quality control about the information we use to make decisions about people,” said Overcast.When pursuing fairness and inclusion, it’s important to make sure that AI amplifies every voice and that all employees are heard equally. Overcast offered an example about a global manufacturer that wanted to do a sentiment analysis across its manufacturing plants across the globe. With use of AI and multi-lingual analysis, it was discovered that a specific work group was having challenges with workload and wellness which was at a Spanish-speaking plant. In the past, if there weren’t Spanish-speaking employees on the main HR team, the data couldn’t be uncovered quickly as it had to be translated and analyzed separately. However, now with AI, it’s the same process regarding all employee comment data and the decisions are now made at the same time.As for transparency and interpretability, the black box problem exists. The data goes in, results come back; however, we don’t understand why and where the recommendation comes from. There are questions that may come up regarding the sentiment, the topic, or the tone. When using AI, it’s important that the recommendation is ultimately traceable back to the source comment. It’s vital to have trust in the data.The last responsible AI topic discussed by Overcast was privacy and consent. It’s vital to protect employee data and there are ways to do so with AI. For example, redaction provides a way to ensure employee data privacy. It’s important to ensure the organization is protected, too. Wherever you are in your AI journey, Overcast advises keeping the seven principles of responsible AI front and center. That includes educating teams on AI’s limitations and recognizing that, while powerful, it is not always accurate. Transparency and human oversight are essential, and responsible AI principles should guide every stage of how the technology is used.Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Students Feel Ready for the Workplace. Managers See a Gap. What Now?
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski November 17, 2025How prepared are students really for the post-graduate job market? Nearly 98% of students feel confident in their professional communication and 85% feel they’re ready to learn new tools on the job; however, 60% of employers have fired a Gen Z employee, according to a recent study.“Clearly there’s a disconnect between the actual skill-readiness and the perceived skill-readiness,” said Stéphanie Durand, VP of strategic partnerships at CodeSignal, a skills assessment and AI-powered learning tool company. Durand shared insights on this solvable disconnect during a thought leadership spotlight titled, “Students Feel Ready. Managers Disagree. What Now?” at From Day One’s Midtown conference. New innovations that occur daily increase pressure on candidates to have the right job skills. At the same time, employers may rely on traditional hiring methods, such as CVs and the applicant’s school, rather than focusing on actual skills. “This career readiness gap, as I like to call it, has a real impact,” said Durand.Especially amid advancements in AI and other workplace shifts, many entry-level hires feel unprepared, according to recent research. “You can imagine the type of pressure it causes from a performance perspective,” said Durand. The data shows it’s more around soft skills than technical skills, she says. “We keep talking about technical skills evolving every day and AI, but soft skills are actually a real gap.”Another impact of the career readiness gap, says Durand, is the cost of hiring and retraining as someone who may be less prepared will require more mentoring. The Reality of Being Lifelong Learners Stéphanie Durand, VP of strategic partnerships at CodeSignal, led the sessionAnother big change is that we’ve all become lifelong learners. In the past, we used to go to school, get a degree, and choose our career path. Today, skills are quickly evolving, says Durand. “I think the average shelf life of a skill is 18 months,” she said. “This may have even gone lower with GenAI.”With this in mind, it’s important to continuously upskill to keep up with the skills and even go beyond what universities offer by providing avenues for employees to continuously learn, says Durand.However, Durand cautions that the learning options available to employees may not always be effective. “There’s too much training that is very off-the-shelf, video-based, theoretical, and really doesn’t align to the skills that employees need,” said Durand. Durand highlights the point by providing the example of learning to play an instrument or to play tennis and how you need to practice these skills to really learn them. Simply watching a video on the topic won’t be enough. How Companies Ensure a Ready-to-Work HireThere are three main ways that companies turn a ready-or-not hire into a ready-to-work hire: skills assessment, closing the skills gap, and AI leverage, says Durand. Skills verification is the first best practice, whether for hiring or evaluating your early talent that joins the team. Focus on core skills, not as much on specialized skills, because you may overlook some great hires otherwise. Next, try to avoid multiple choice questions, as these may not really give you an objective assessment of a skill. You should also ensure that when using an assessment that it’s fair and consistent. Durand states that any assessments that are validated by I/O psychologists may be good options. Once you’ve assessed your future hires and noted any skills gaps, you want to close the skills gap. This can be accomplished by hands-on, practical learning interventions rather than multiple choice questions as the former provides a good way to close the skills gap and evaluate potential hires, says Durand.AI can also be a game changer, Durand says. Using an AI tutor enhances learning by providing active feedback, helping individuals prepare for job roles or improving experiential learning for new hires. Unlike passive videos, this approach guides users on how to improve specific skills and job duties.The Future Looks Bright“There’s a lot of uncertainty but also a lot of opportunity ahead,” says Durand.To illustrate the impact of hands-on learning, Durand shared a case study. eBay runs a program for potential interns where participants complete a coding skills assessment before and after the program, and the results are striking, with scores showing a significant jump after the hands-on experience.“Pairing the assessment of skills of your workforce, really being intentional about the type of learning you deploy, and then reassessing again is really where we see eBay as an example, but a lot of companies are going in that direction, too,” said Durand. There is so much happening in universities and in the workplace that gives Durand hope and confidence, including competency-based education, real-world experiences that prepare students for employer expectations, and helping future graduates understand the language of the corporate world.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)