Unified by Innovation: Tech’s Role in Global Workforce Management
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 06, 2025Artificial intelligence may be the most exciting new hire, but it’s not ready to make tighter-knit teams. As companies race to automate recruiting, performance reviews, and even written feedback, some HR leaders are asking a different question: Can technology actually make people feel more connected at work?That question is top of mind for Claude Silver, chief heart officer at global marketing firm VaynerX. Her team is experimenting with AI to generate personalized, quarterly feedback for employees—part of an effort to give people more consistent check-ins with their managers. But she’s yet to find something AI-powered that really facilitates interpersonal relationships. “I really want some AI tools that strengthen human relationships,” she said. “Bottom line: belonging and trust. I want to find a way that AI can help us with the connection moments.”Until AI can do it, companies are finding other ways to use technology to foster interaction, especially as teams become bigger and more global. That was the topic discussion among a panel of HR leaders during From Day One’s October virtual conference on smart strategies for collaborating across borders.At fintech company NCR Atleos, global executive director of talent and learning, Curtis Brooks is using tech to create learning communities where employees exchange leadership lessons and self-reflect. “People are starting to comment, and when one person comments, it creates the space for the next person,” he said. That kind of engagement, while modest, can spark a ripple effect of connection across teams.Too Many Tools, Not Enough ConnectionBut as companies add tools, they risk overwhelming the very people they’re trying to connect. HR tech stacks have grown taller–and unwieldy. Information and data are stored across disparate systems, team communications are fragmented, and unvetted tools can introduce security risks.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, journalist and From Day One contributing editor, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)The first test of whether a tool is worth using is whether it creates connection or friction, says Carol Cochran, senior director of HR at BOLD. Cochran recalled a team that relied on a pulse-check tool for frequent feedback. When that platform was retired, the team tried to recreate it on their own, adding so many new questions that it became a miniature engagement survey. “Suddenly it shifted right from being a pulse check useful for line managers to a mini-engagement survey where they were asking questions that, frankly, line managers aren’t in a position to really address,” Cochran said. “That was going to create more friction than connection.”Picking and ChoosingAt Google, global HR leader Jasmine Dolfus uses a four-part rubric to decide whether new tools are worth adding. Step one: assess needs and local compliance requirements. Step two: compare against standardized business criteria to ensure equity and consistency. Step three: make sure the change won’t disrupt or disadvantage other teams or regions. And finally, monitor the impact once the tool is in use.At NCR Atleos, Brooks applies an 80/20 rule. About 80% of technology and processes should be universal to the company, while 20% should be unique to specific teams or geographies. “It’s employee-driven, business-directed, and organizationally enabled,” he said.Cochran says that at BOLD, which recently acquired CareerBuilder and Monster, the challenge has been integration. Each company brought its own HR systems, workflows, tools, and habits. “At least in the beginning, you have to save a lot more than you can cut to keep business continuity,” she said. “There’s so much change hitting people that you don’t want to pull away the tools they need to stay functional and operating–even if it’s just a communication platform, because that’s what they’re used to.”That cautious approach may be what keeps these HR leaders grounded amid all the AI hype. For all the promise of automation, the real opportunity lies in designing systems that strengthen, not replace, human relationships.“We all need to understand AI, to use AI, and to not be afraid of it,” said Silver. “But at the end of the day, when I put my hand on your shoulder and say, ‘I got you,’ AI is not going to do that.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock)
Maintaining Employee Experience at Scale—Without Losing Personalization
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 04, 2025There are two parts to the HR field, says Sarah Rose Hattem: the administrative work of ticking boxes, sending emails, and ensuring compliance, and the creative work of designing better processes, developing a workforce, and improving the employee experience. “That’s the more important work,” she said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s September virtual conference.Hattem is now a senior solutions consultant at HR tech company Rippling, but she spent her early career in HR. As the first HR hire at a company with just 50 employees, and plans to double headcount in a year, she faced a challenge familiar to many HR teams: doing a lot with very little. Tracking applicants, sending offers, and onboarding dozens of new hires each month quickly became overwhelming. But with Rippling’s platform, which worked like an operating system with its own taxonomy and native apps, “it was really like having an extra set of hands,” she said.Sarah Rose Hattem, senior solutions consultant at Rippling, spoke with journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza during the session (company photo)The paper-pushing side of HR work meant that Hattem, like so many other HR professionals, risked being an admin rather than a strategic contributor. This familiar problem has only grown as companies navigate big changes like layoffs, restructurings to return-to-office mandates, and the arrival of AI “coworkers.” HR teams are managing increasingly complex work while trying to preserve the human side of their role.Much of HR’s daily frustration, Hattem says, comes down to fragmented systems. Most organizations rely on a patchwork of tools that don’t easily communicate–one for payroll, another for benefits, and another still for performance reviews. They’re scattered and disconnected, and that slows the most basic processes. Technology should enhance the human side of HR, not replace it, Hattem says. The “human component” is the one thing she didn’t want to lose. “Does someone feel warm and welcome? Do they feel like we’ve given attention to them on a personal level? That’s really hard to do when you have to do all the other administrative things,” she said. The fix, Hattem argued, isn’t more software, but a smarter system. If employee data such as role, location, or manager could automatically sync across systems, if performance reviews could be connected with payroll, and work anniversaries with PTO balances, then HR teams could spend less time chasing paperwork and more time on what makes the job meaningful: creative problem-solving, process refinement, and building real connections. This, she says, is where HR professionals deserve to work.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Rippling, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock)
AI as a Corporate Earthquake: How Big Changes Can Make or Break Company Culture
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 04, 2025The embedding of AI in business operations represents the most significant disruption to our working lives since the internet, and for the majority of the workforce—who aren’t old enough to remember how the internet upended not only day-to-day work but entire career trajectories—it’s the most tectonic change in their lifetime.In the race to operationalize AI, employers are destabilizing company culture. Long-proven processes are being overturned, responsibilities reorganized, tasks eliminated, knowledge re-oriented, and jobs replaced. What once required a team to accomplish can be done with just one or two people. Some solopreneurs are able to mount wildly profitable companies with no team members at all.As the workplace morphs into something entirely new, leaders must consider the effects on culture. The trouble is that many “companies often have a hard time understanding how quickly their organization changes,” said Miles Overholt, founder and CEO of Strategia Analytics.From Day One contributing editor Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza spoke with Miles Overholt, above, founder and CEO of Strategia, about how to effectively integrate AI into the workplace (company photo)An expert in organizational transformation and change with advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton School, Overholt has watched as companies fail to consider the working environment during major overhauls, only to have communication break down, distrust spread, and changes ultimately fail. A company may start a new project, he said, “but by the time you’re into it, the company has already changed and the implementation strategy has to be adjusted.” Initiatives can easily fail unless leaders account for how changes will affect what Overholt calls “organizational DNA,” or the ways an organization interacts with internal and external environments. Organizational DNA is always evolving, but it is especially fragile during major shocks such as mergers, acquisitions, or operational overhauls, including the introduction of AI.To preserve a healthy culture, leaders must know what the company is today, and have a clear picture of what it should be in the future. The Rush to Adopt AI, While Failing to Account for Cultural ChangeMany companies have already gotten ahead of themselves with AI. An analysis found that while major U.S. companies talk often about AI, “other than the ‘fear of missing out,’ few appear to be able to describe how technology is changing their businesses for the better.” This raises the question: If companies can’t clearly state the impact of AI on the business, do they know anything at all about its impact on culture?AI is shocking many companies because leaders failed to consider its effects on mentality, relationships, and behavior of the workforce, said Dave Lopez, Strategia Analytics’ SVP of systems research. “When AI is introduced, employees en masse believe, rightly or wrongly, that they’re out the door. If you’re introducing an AI system and your workforce is now concerned that they are about to be made redundant and lose their job, how does that impact how your organization is functioning?”Without clear communication about purpose, application, and goals, huge operational overhauls create distrust between workers fearful for their job security and leaders frustrated by slow adoption or outright resistance. How workers feel about operationalized AI depends on the industry and the role. Heavily routined industries such as manufacturing are seeing heightened anxiety, says Lopez. While in others, like financial services, “AI is seen more as a tool that can help you better perform your job, but your job is not necessarily at risk.” That’s not to say its effects on culture are smaller, only different.When Change Overlooks DNA, Culture CracksCompanies that fail to consider how AI will disrupt the way an organization interacts with both internal and external environments will face three critical problems.First, a breakdown in communication that engenders distrust can occur. If AI rollouts are framed as efficiency plays without transparency, employees—especially those in highly vulnerable roles like customer service and software engineering—may suspect ulterior motives. Unless your people know where you’re going and why, they won’t follow you there.In a From Day One webinar, Overholt recalled one spectacular breakdown in communication that left leaders and workers at aggressive odds. One of his early clients was a CEO who was certain that a fire on the machine floor was deliberately set and executive cars vandalized by employees. After investigating, Overholt discovered that while workers loved pleasing customers, they hated the work environment. “I’m listening to all these people in pain,” he recalled. “I’m watching supervisors trying to make things better, but they’re caught in the crunch between top management and employees, and nobody’s talking.” This gulf was widened when leadership built an executive parking lot fortified by a wall. Rather than take the time to understand what employees were feeling, the leaders drew battle lines and prepared for a fight.“If you want to understand behavior,” he said, “you have to understand the individual and context that individual happens to be in.”Next comes a disengagement from work.Managers and supervisors are employees’ most crucial point of connection to the company. Gallup found that upwards of 70% of variance in team engagement can be chalked up to the manager alone.If line managers who work directly with rank and file aren’t incorporated in AI rollouts early and eagerly, buy-in from the broader organization will suffer. Engaging managers will prevent leaders from seeing the organization as homogenous and unmoving—they are your key to understanding team dynamics, day-to-day operations, and likely roadblocks. Few leaders truly know why things don’t get done and why changes don’t land. But your managers do.The last problem Overholt sees is changes that don’t stick. Without trust and engagement, work suffers. “Behavior is a function of the person and the environment,” Overholt said. If a company’s culture doesn’t actively support and reward the behaviors it wants to see, meaningful change simply won’t stick.Some leaders are prone to see change as a zero-sum game: It’s good for business or it’s good for employees. But that’s not true, says Frances Almstrom, Strategia’s VP of systems research. “You can do what’s good for your company and what’s good for your people at the same time.” When you do, operations can change, quite successfully.Practical Steps for Preserving Culture Amid AI DisruptionResisting the urge to simply keep up with the Joneses is the first step. While benchmarking your competitors is useful, imitation is not an operational strategy. Success comes from understanding what truly fits your organization’s unique DNA and long-term goals, says Overholt. Before and after any AI rollout, leaders should take stock of how changes affect the organization across four dimensions: strategy, leadership, culture, and execution. By regularly measuring the root causes of underperformance, say, every six months, they can catch small problems before they metastasize into larger ones.Managers play a pivotal role in guiding employees through transitions. Well-prepared leaders don’t just enforce new systems, they help employees understand the changes, address concerns, and model behaviors that reinforce the desired culture.Communication strategies, too, must be thoughtful and nuanced. Employees will perceive AI differently depending on their roles, experiences, and industry context. Effective messaging anticipates these varied perspectives, highlighting both opportunities and challenges so that employees feel part of the process rather than casualties of change.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Strategia Analytics, for supporting this sponsor spotlight. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by FG Trade/iStock)
Recruiting Rebuilt: How to Streamline Your Hiring Pipeline, Data, and Workflow
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza November 03, 2025Recruiters are busier than ever, though not necessarily more productive. “We’re seeing three times more applications per recruiter today than just a few years ago,” said Meredith Johnson, chief product officer at Greenhouse, during a From Day One webinar on streamlining the hiring process. At small companies, that influx could mean 100 applications for a single job, and at larger companies–thousands.“Today’s job seeker can use AI to mass apply for hundreds of roles in just a few clicks, and they’re customizing their resumes instantly,” she said. Recruiters’ inboxes are flooded with fraudulent, unqualified, or disingenuous applications, “and it’s creating a lot of false signals.”Greenhouse tracked 300 million applications in a single year, which means that there could be 200 times more applications than roles filled in a given quarter. “Recruiters are spending upwards of 80% of their time sifting through this noise,” Johnson said. Meanwhile, the teams doing that work are shrinking. “The average number of recruiters per team has dropped by 24%,” she said, and each recruiter is now handling triple the workload of a few years ago. Sorting candidates, especially at the top of the funnel, is getting harder.Candidates, meanwhile, expect more: faster responses, transparent processes, and personalized communication. In short, Johnson said: “Recruiters are stuck with quite a bit of chaos.”‘From Requisition Takers to Talent Strategists’Johnson says that recruiters can break this cycle not only with automation, but with strategy. For reactive hiring teams, work starts when a role opens. For proactive hiring teams, the work is building the workforce at all times. Johnson wants to help recruiters go from “requisition takers to talent strategists,” continuously building relationships and pipelines.Meredith Johnson, chief product officer at Greenhouse, pictured, spoke with journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza during the webinar (company photo)That requires structure and consistency. Johnson described one client whose hiring process varied wildly–each manager had their own way of evaluating candidates, and no candidate’s experience was like the next. By standardizing the process and criteria, the company created a more equitable and more predictable system. The new structure also allowed recruiters to act as advisors, not just box-tickers.Johnson emphasized that AI isn’t meant to replace recruiters–it will help them work efficiently. The recruiter remains in charge of the process and rubrics, while the tech can handle things like candidate sentiment analysis and flagging potentially fraudulent applications. With smarter tech, recruiters can then prioritize real candidates who express genuine enthusiasm for the role, without removing human judgement or sacrificing the candidate experience.AI makes it easy for good-faith candidates to apply easily, and makes it easier for bad actors to do the same. Greenhouse has found that nearly one percent of resumes contain some kind of trick like inflated skills or falsified experience. One percent may sound like a small figure, but when a company receives 2,000 applications for a single role, those numbers add up.To address this, Johnson pointed to Greenhouse’s partnership with Clear, which allows recruiters to confirm a candidate’s identity at any point in the hiring process they choose. “It’s as simple as taking a selfie photo and uploading the government ID.” As the pressure on recruiters to do more with less continues, the next phase of talent acquisition will depend on how effectively teams can balance automation with human judgment, using AI to find the signal in the noise. “Recruiters are being forced to spend a lot of critical time and energy manually sifting through hundreds or thousands of resumes,” Johnson said. “What they really want to do, and what they’re skilled at, is building relationships with truly qualified talent and moving those candidates through the process.” And that’s what she wants to give them.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Greenhouse, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Pakin Jarerndee/iStock)
Improving Financial Wellness for Your Employees at a Modest Cost
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 28, 2025As inflation squeezes paychecks, student debt looms over graduates, and the cost of childcare keeps climbing, companies are under mounting pressure to help employees make the most of their money. But offering financial wellness programs isn’t just a nice-to-have. Employees now expected it–and it’s a strategic business move. The problem, however, is doing so cost-efficiently.The first challenge is often getting executives, who make six- or seven-figure incomes, to understand the financial plights of salaried, and especially hourly, employees. At MGM Resorts–famous for its gaming, hospitality, and entertainment venues–many leaders are what DJ Rao, the company’s head of total rewards, calls “homegrown.” They started with modest means. “They’ve grown from the front desk upwards into the C-suite. Our leadership appreciates and understands what $400 is,” he said during a recent From Day One webinar about improving employee financial wellness at a modest cost.If your leaders don’t have this kind of appreciation, Rao emphasized that presenting programs as a moral imperative won’t be enough. HR leaders must benchmark against competitors in terms of ROI, reduced absenteeism, and increased productivity. Your leaders are concerned about the business, so translate it into dollars and cents. “It just cannot be, ‘Let’s do this because it’s good.’ You have to show the money.”But how do you know if you’re delivering what your employees really need? Trade-off surveys are a helpful tool. Devin Miller, co-founder and CEO of emergency-savings platform SecureSave, recommends asking employees which benefits they actually want, rather than assuming the standard offerings will work. Expert speakers joined From Day One contributing editor Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza for a conversation on improving employee financial wellness at a modest cost“Everything’s costing more, and you want to add more, but do they really still need all of these things? And which one do they prefer over others?” Miller said. Some employees might prioritize emergency-savings accounts over health savings accounts or other perks entirely. Understanding these preferences ensures programs make a meaningful impact.Financial resources don’t have to be expensive, and some don’t cost a thing. Damilola Akinduro, global head of benefits at the data-center company Equinix, points out that, without extra cash, employees often struggle to save. To help, Equinix helps its workers with tax efficiency and brings in volunteer experts for financial education. “You’d be surprised at how much employees appreciate these things,” she said.First United Bank also leans on its internal resources. They invite specialists from within the bank to host talks about budgeting, and have their 401(k) provider give free seminars, said Christina Escobar, a senior financial well-being specialist at First United. “We really try to leverage our vendors and our internal resources.” These resources are especially helpful for their new grads (they hire 100 to 200 every year), who may have never followed a budget or set up a retirement account.Vendors themselves are evolving to make financial benefits more cost-effective. Dave Kirby, SVP of total rewards at marketing data company Epsilon, noted that platform-style solutions now allow companies to consolidate things like charitable giving, wellness programs, and financial literacy offerings in one place, making it easier to scale benefits efficiently. “There are now vendors that are bringing all this together under one platform,” he said.Over time, employers may need to reevaluate their offerings. “It’s surprising how few employers take the time to go through these programs, ask the hard questions, and pull that money back,” Miller said. Many companies can fund improvements by reallocating underused benefits rather than increasing budgets.Rao warned against chasing wellness trends. “Everyone wants to do something new, but be very careful what you offer your employees,” lest you have to roll it back. He recommends investing fully in a few initiatives and communicating widely—through word of mouth, employee resource groups (ERGs), signage, and internal websites. “Do few things,” Rao said, “but do them well.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs. (Featured photo by LordHenryVoton/iStock by Getty Images)
Why AI Is Forcing Companies to Rethink What a Job Is
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 22, 2025The rapid maturity of AI is changing the question HR leaders ask when they’re talking about jobs. Where leaders once asked, “Who can do this job?,” they’re now asking, “What combination of human and AI can do it best?”This is a natural next revolution of the “skills-based hiring” model that shifted job paradigms away from role descriptions and toward equipping workers with specific capabilities the organization needs. And that goes for AI agents too. One of AI assistant Claude’s new features is actually called “skills.”Headlines make it sound like AI is wiping out jobs by the thousand, but “there’s a lot more at play there,” says Lisa Highfield, the principal director of HR tech and AI at the consulting firm McLean & Company. Some companies are going through typical reorganizations while others are simply responding to market downturns. “We’re not seeing the masses of AI job reduction that a lot of these headlines sometimes indicate.”While displacement is not yet widespread, companies are experimenting with augmenting workers–and sometimes replacing them, yes–with AI. Startups like Artisan and Viven are building “AI coworkers” and “digital twins,” and attracting tens of millions of dollars in venture funding. Yet few are forecasting human irrelevance. Even Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, whose company is probably best known for its provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” marketing campaign, told TechCrunch that he doesn’t believe AI will replace most human labor. “Human labor becomes more valuable when you have the AI content,” he said. In fact, the company has been hiring all year. It’s more likely that we will see more human-AI partnership in the workplace.How far up the ladder could this go? Hanneke Faber, CEO of global tech manufacturing company Logitech, says that she would entertain the idea of an AI agent joining her board of directors. “We already use [AI agents] in almost every meeting,” Faber told the audience last week at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference. “As they evolve—and some of the best agents or assistants that we’ve built actually do things themselves—that comes with a whole bunch of governance things. You have to keep in mind and make sure you really want that bot to take action. But if you don’t have an AI agent in every meeting, you’re missing out on some of the productivity.”Many leaders are putting faith in AI as a productivity booster. A leaked message from a Meta executive told workers that they should be working five times faster, thanks to AI. Even companies just dabbling in automation are using AI to handle repetitive tasks like data entry and reporting, while augmenting others, like analysis and strategy. Employees are reporting time savings. At HR tech company Deputy, employees using AI tools report saving five to ten hours per week. At media company Scripps, 20% of newsroom workers using AI for just one or two hours per day say they save roughly 20 minutes of total work time.Nascent AI practices are not without their problems, of course. Employees are frustrated by the amount of “workslop,” or AI-generated content void of substance, being served up, forcing humans to clean up after the machines. It’s become so common that colleagues are reportedly losing trust in each other. “We think [AI] will reduce our workload,” said Sue Cantrell, a work futurist at Deloitte. “But in reality, many workers are finding it increases their workload. It can also increase feelings of loneliness when they’re working more with AI than with their colleagues.”Yet thanks to AI, workforce planning is becoming more nimble. Cantrell recently met with a company developing a tool that lets managers click a button to see who, or what, has the right skills for a given task. That could mean a full-time employee, a contractor, or even an AI agent. With that data, managers can more accurately forecast headcount, fill roles, and seek out needed skills. HR already has a wealth of information about employees and their skills, and applying some smart AI can help compile skills ontologies and find workers who have them. Highfield believes that, aside from cost efficiency, this is the greatest opportunity AI has afforded so far.Companies are using technology that can deconstruct jobs into skills, then assess workers for skills, and match the two. But this model, so far, breaks down when it comes to work that requires higher-level thinking. Cantrell said that some skills–like creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking–can’t be cleanly parsed from the people who have them, and atomizing such work can kill not only the nuance, but also the joy. “Tasks are the actual activities underneath the job, and skills are the actual capabilities that workers bring,” Cantrell parsed. Not all work can, or should, be chopped into its component parts.In some organizations, the lines between people and technology are blurring at the structural level. Cantrell points to companies, like Moderna and Covisian, that have merged their HR and IT departments. IT’s role is to figure out how to perform work with technology, one leader told her, while HR’s role is to figure out how to perform work with people. Now companies are experimenting with bringing the roles together, though at least one leading HR thinker calls it a “senseless” endeavor. Stay tuned for more on that one.Work performed by both humans and machines, in parallel or in concert, may define the next revolution of business transformation. Think beyond efficiency, Cantrell said. Companies often think of AI as task replacement, but she believes “it’s an opportunity to reinvent the way we’re working.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Featured image by Gremlin/iStock by Getty Images)
Optimizing Productivity and Efficiency in Times of Constraint
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 22, 2025As companies face tighter budgets, leaner teams, and pressure to boost productivity, one thing has become clear: Success depends less on scale and more on resourcefulness. The winners aren’t necessarily those with the biggest teams or deepest pockets—but those that can make the most of what they have. That was the takeaway from an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s September virtual conference. Panelists shared how they’re tackling the modern dilemma of how to stay effective when everyone is stretched thin.Balancing Priorities and Capacity“One of the biggest disconnects between leadership’s expectations and employees’ day-to-day is capacity versus priority,” said Joanna Eagan, senior director of people services at Core & Main. “Leaders tend to set ambitious productivity goals with the best intentions, but employees are juggling competing demands, a lot of administrative tasks, and often outdated tools. It can feel like leadership is asking for more without taking anything off their plates.”Ryan Sattler, director of HR tech and intelligence at M&T Bank, agreed that clarity is often a problem. “I don’t think many organizations do a particularly good job at clarifying and articulating where employees should be spending their energy,” he said. It’s easy to keep doing the same things, even when leadership has set new priorities. Leaders, Sattler added, should focus on strategy, removing obstacles and setting direction, rather than dictating day-to-day work.Managing Change From the Inside OutWhen every quarter seems to bring a new system, workflow, or AI automation, change fatigue becomes a real problem. By the time new initiatives reach the frontline, those workers often haven’t been part of the conversation. “We need to focus on listening to our employees and their experiences, reprioritizing low-value work so they can get on board with the pivots being asked of them,” said Eagan.To help new tools catch on, HR tech platform Deputy designates “AI Champions”—enthusiastic early adopters who can model success for their peers. “Instead of having something come from the top down, we’re building excitement and momentum from the middle of the organization and from the bottom up,” said Sejal Daswani, Deputy’s chief people officer.Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the discussion (photo by From Day One)“Change is difficult for everyone, even if we know it’s going to make our life easier,” added Heather Mannings, executive director and HR business partner at Quest Diagnostics. Her team makes changes with a lot of explanation, and welcomes input from employees on how to make it better—after all, they’re the ones using it.Simplifying Work Through Smart AutomationCore & Main began its automation journey by targeting tedious, error-prone parts of payroll, and ultimately gaining hundreds of hours in productivity. Deputy reports similar benefits: Internal surveys found that AI tools are saving employees five to ten hours per week in writing, messaging, and presentation work.As tools multiply, integration remains a challenge. “I haven’t met a customer or frontline employee yet who says they don’t have enough apps, tools, or systems,” said Dave Nixon, CEO and co-founder of Enablo, an all-in-one communications platform for frontline workforces. The problem is integration. Companies are aspiring to reduce complexity for frontline workers—a single “digital front door” where they can check shifts, report incidents, and get company updates.The next era of productivity isn’t about squeezing more hours out of employees, it’s about removing friction, clarifying priorities, and designing systems that let people focus on work that matters. Whether through automation, better communication, or smarter change management, organizations are finding that efficiency in 2025 doesn’t come from doing more—it comes from doing less, better.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by miniseries/iStock)
Activating Learning in the Age of AI: Practical Approaches and Tools That Make an Impact
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza October 13, 2025As companies rush to integrate AI tools into daily workflows, a challenge has emerged: how to make the technology feel less like a threat and more like a skill everyone can master. Across industries, from tech to media, employers are rolling out training programs that make AI literacy fundamental and fully integrated.At biotech firm Genentech, every employee receives training in foundational AI principles, ethics, and responsibility. The company encourages staff to experiment with tools in sandbox environments, supported by live sessions and peer learning where colleagues can show off what they’ve built or learned. They’ve even developed internal “tech geniuses” who act as one-on-one tutors.“We want to make sure everyone’s got the same starting place, but also room to experiment and explore in such a way that they want to learn more and be more advanced in their capabilities,” said Heidi Schisel, Genentech’s VP of people and culture, during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s August virtual conference. At Aspen Dental, the company appointed a head of artificial intelligence to its IT team and made AI training mandatory. But not everyone was immediately enthusiastic. Right away, employees were worried about their job security, says Katie Stangel, VP of learning and development. Others feared they’d be seen as “cheating” if they used AI. To normalize the tools, Stangel created a Teams group dedicated to sharing and celebrating responsible AI use. “People are starting to celebrate and call out when they’ve used it, saying, ‘I use ChatGPT to help me with this outline,’ or ‘I used Articulate AI to help me with the design and development of the course.’ We celebrate that,” she said. Panelists spoke about learning in the age of AI during the virtual session (photo by From Day One)Experts say AI literacy develops in stages—from unstructured experimentation to true automation and augmentation of work. Leaders, especially, often try to skip steps, said Amelia Rosenman, director of programs at the Experience Institute, but “learn out loud” cultures are key if adoption is to be company-wide. “If the leader isn’t showing that they’re making mistakes, or that they haven’t figured out all of the answers, then everyone feels that they should have it all figured out by now,” she said. “Share both your successes and your failures. That’s what creates that safe environment, that risk-free sandbox.”No one needs to be an expert yet, says David Wentworth, VP of talent at frontline learning management platform Schoox. “Let’s move past that and focus on results: What are we trying to do? Always tie it to real problems and real outcomes,” he said. The good news is, many companies already have standard operating procedures and ethics guidelines they can apply right away to get AI training up and running. “Don’t think that you have to start a whole new paradigm about how to approach this thing,” Wentworth said. “You’re probably 60, 70, or 80% of the way there. Just tweak it a bit to fit your current needs.”At multimedia company Scripps, AI tools are helping new reporters develop their skills faster. “Human coaches are amazing, but there’s something about an AI mentor that’s completely nonjudgmental,” said Ginger Summers, senior director of L&D. Their AI tool gives feedback on drafts, helping reporters think critically about sourcing and permissions, without having to tap their peers. About 20% of newsroom employees now use the tool one to two hours per day, saving roughly 20 minutes of work each time. “They’re still learning to use it,” Summers said, “but the time savings are amazing.”This is an excellent example of a successful roll-out of AI as a learning and development tool. Ultimately, said Rosenman, companies must be clear about why they’re implementing AI, and the results they’re achieving. If employees fear that AI is threatening their jobs, panic will quickly spread.“There’s so much opportunity for the smartest, most creative minds in media to eliminate the drag that keeps them from doing the work they do,” read a late-summer edition of the business newsletter Feed Me. “This instinct, too often, is to hire a COO, a CTO, a chief of staff, or a small army of ops staff, but if you develop prompt engineering skills, commit time to investing in these tools, you can replace huge chunks of that infrastructure and stay small, fast, and creative.”While some companies may be looking for ways to cut their workforces in half, many companies want to become more efficient without hiring anyone new or expand expertise more quickly, said Rosenman. When employees know that, the message shifts from existential threat to helpful teammate.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by gorodenkoff/iStock)
Creating a Competitive Edge in the Race for Talent
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 30, 2025Job seekers are exhausted. More than two-thirds (66%) say they’re burned out by the search, according to Employ’s 2025 Job Seeker Nation Report. The process is repetitive, opaque, and often ends with a rejection that explains nothing. “A lot of people are wondering, ‘is my resume seen at all, or am I just getting screened out?’” said Katie Ballantyne, VP of customer success operations at Employ. Ballantyne and her colleagues spoke at a From Day One webinar on how employers can gain a competitive edge in the race for talent.Most hiring managers don’t intend for it to be this bad. They’re often recruiting for brand-new, complex roles while juggling outdated processes. “But you wouldn’t build a house without a plan,” Ballantyne said. “You wouldn’t rock up every day and pop a pipe in over here, and a switch over here. No. You’re going to have a layout, you’re going to have an idea of what you’re doing. But people don’t approach hiring in the same way.” This is where AI can be a hugely valuable tool.The poor experience is costing companies. Many job seekers—including great candidates—drop out of an application process that’s “too cumbersome, too repetitive, and doesn’t usually elicit information that’s not already on a resume,” said Shea Shatto, Employ’s senior director of referral partners. Companies relying on endless forms or clunky portals are turning people away before they even make it to an interview.Traditional resume screening tools are a problem. Most automatically eliminate the majority of applications before they even reach a recruiter. But the reject folder could comprise tremendously rich candidates, says Katy Jenkins, Employ’s VP of product. An application submitted toward the end of the hiring window or one not perfectly tailored to the job shouldn’t disqualify someone with valuable skills. AI tools can help employers spot overlooked candidates deep in their pipelines, without spending more money.Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the discussion (photo by From Day One)More employers are turning to more productive tools, like knockout questions and video assessments, that draw out meaningful information with minimal effort from candidates. Others are taking a more open-minded approach, using AI to steer strong applicants toward roles that are a better fit rather than ejecting them from the funnel altogether. “When you go through the whole process and you have your top five candidates, they’re all really qualified,” Shatto said. “Just because the other four don’t make it to that exact role, it doesn’t mean there’s not a good fit for them somewhere.”Some are leaning heavily into their employee value proposition. If an employer claims to value growth and development, candidates should see evidence—whether that’s details about internal mobility programs or stats about how many roles are filled from within. Recruiters need to be able to talk about these opportunities, not just point to a careers page. Without proof, employer branding can sound like empty promises.The weakest link in the hiring process is often evaluation. Many managers have little or no training in how to assess candidates consistently. That’s where AI-powered structured guides and interview intelligence tools come in. “We find that when people use some interview intelligence tooling, first year retention is, on average, 30% higher,” said Jenkins. “Because they’ve actually really evaluated that person against the job. Everyone has very clear expectations.”For candidates, consistency means clarity about what’s expected, how they’re measured, and even how they can improve. That kind of respect keeps people engaged, even if they don’t land the role this time.Jenkins asked her team to do an exercise in empathy: write the rejection letter they would want to receive. The exercise is simple, but it reframes the process around something hiring leaders often forget: every candidate deserves respect. Fixing hiring isn’t just about speed or efficiency, but trust. The companies that get it right won’t just win more talent, they’ll keep it.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Employ, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by FG Trade Latin/iStock)
How Companies Are Tackling Employee Financial Instability With Emergency Savings
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 25, 2025As of 2024, 37% of American adults say they would struggle to cover an unexpected $400 expense. Financial precariousness shows up in the workplace as stress, disengagement, and turnover. Increasingly, companies are realizing that 401(k)s aren’t enough to ensure financial stability. Workers need short-term safety nets, too. That’s why a growing number of employers are experimenting with emergency savings programs.At specialty grocer The Fresh Market, a routine employee survey revealed that financial wellness—not physical or emotional health—was workers’ top concern. What followed was a pilot program that helped employees build lasting savings habits and avoid relying on costly paycheck advances.‘We See Emergency Savings as a Foundational First Step’Every year, Paula Stop, the director of total rewards at The Fresh Market, surveys employees about what benefits they would like to see in the coming year. In 2022, she asked which of the following forms of wellness was most important: physical, financial, social, or emotional. “We were surprised,” she said during a From Day One webinar about emergency savings at work. “The top selection overall was financial wellness.”Stop investigated and found that use of the company’s earned wage access platform was high—higher than she was comfortable with. Clearly, employees were struggling with cash, and they needed a better option than regular advances on their paycheck.That’s when The Fresh Market tapped their long-time partner Commonwealth, a national nonprofit whose mission is to make access to financial security and wealth-building common and accessible. Having an emergency savings account is the first step to financial security, said Charvi Gandotra, the organization’s senior director. Without that cushion, people overly rely on paycheck advances, 401(k) loans and hardship withdrawals, and predatory loans. For some, it shows up in tax levies and wage garnishments. “Because life happens, people tap into some of those longer-term retirement solutions, and that’s what we are trying to prevent,” said Gandotra, “We’re trying to help strengthen. We see [emergency savings] as a foundational first step.”Leaders spoke about "Emergency Savings at Work: How Employers Are Tackling America's Financial Safety" in the session moderated by Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza (photo by From Day One)Stop and Gandotra decided to add SoFi to the partnership. The Fresh Market had already been working with the digital bank for its student loan refinancing program, and Sarah McLemore, the senior director and business lead at SoFi, was ready to jump in and help. Emergency savings is often a great compliment to wage access, she says. “Earned wage access can be great in terms of avoiding going into deep debt. But on the flip side, you’re not teaching people how to save and prepare for big bills. They’re just going to get money when you need it. This is a nice one-two punch.” Rolling Out Emergency SavingsThey began with a pilot in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the Florida Panhandle, areas where earned wage access was highest. The program let employees split their direct deposit at the time of payroll, and over the course of a campaign to encourage savings, the share of paycheck contributed to the program grew from 6% to 8%. Three months later, employees had retained their gains. The habit was sticking.When The Fresh Market rolled out the program to all employees, it matched a $75 direct deposit with a $75 company contribution. The incentive structure was a huge success for the grocer. Engagement is best when communication is clear and consistent and incentives are attainable, though McLemore noted that plenty of employers launch successful programs without a company match.The type of savings program that worked for employees at The Fresh Market may not work for employees at the next company, Gandotra says. “The starting point for employers is doing research, understanding what an employee’s needs and priorities are. Let’s identify some gaps in the financial benefits program, and then let’s figure out how to fill those gaps.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SoFi at Work, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by designer491/iStock)
If AI Starts Replacing Entry-Level Jobs, How Will Future Leaders Get Started?
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 17, 2025As AI expands across business operations, will the jobs of young workers be among the first to go? If that happens, how will the future leaders of tomorrow enter the talent pipeline? Those are questions that have many HR leaders worried. Headlines warn that AI will damage, or already has damaged, the first rung on the corporate ladder, where young workers start their careers and occupy an important and useful position in corporate hierarchy. Though the full effects of AI on the labor market remain to be seen, some employers are already rethinking their workforce strategies.With AI revolutionizing the most fundamental parts of work, employers must decide whether to regard AI as a substitute for early-career workers or as a tool to accelerate their growth. “If you are a head of HR and you are not jumping up and down and saying, ‘Hey, this is going to impact our culture and our business and our people, and me and my team need to be a part of it,’ then you’re not doing your job,” said Dan Kaplan, managing director of the chief HR officer practice at executive search firm ZRG.Kaplan, who has more than a decade of experience advising CHROs, believes most HR leaders do understand the moment. But he says not enough attention is being paid to the early-career stage, since managerial succession is built on solid entry-level talent.How Much Is AI to Blame?The working world in 2025 is looking grim to many early-career workers, especially for those with college degrees. It’s been a year of layoffs, hiring freezes, and ominous predictions about the obsolescence of entry-level roles under the weight of AI. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 customer-support roles this year, and CEO Mark Benioff told podcaster Logan Bartlett that with AI, he simply doesn’t need as many people. Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei told Axios in May that AI could wipe out half of entry-level jobs. Yet so far, there’s little hard evidence that AI is displacing young workers en masse. “A lot of this is just related to the fact that the labor market has shifted back to a low-hiring, low-firing labor market,” said Joseph Briggs, senior economist at Goldman Sachs, on the firm’s Exchanges podcast. While it’s true that, across many sectors, college graduates are having trouble finding work, “the relationship that the anecdotes have to AI is often a little bit overstated,” he added.Briggs did note some evidence of impact in tech industries, where unemployment among young workers is slightly higher than in other sectors. A working paper from researchers at Stanford University also suggests that widespread adoption of generative AI contributed to a 13% decline in the relative employment of early-career workers in sectors like tech and customer support.Whether AI alone will trigger widespread unemployment among young people remains unclear. Still, companies in key industries are bringing in fewer entry-level hires in 2025. And with large-scale retirements looming, the question becomes: How are they filling the leadership pipeline?Avanade Leans Into Early-Career TalentAt the IT professional-services company Avanade, Paul Phillips isn’t cutting entry-level hires—he’s reaching further upstream. The company targets college sophomores and juniors for internships, training them early so that graduates arrive ready-made for full-time roles.In professional services, it’s imperative that talent is qualified as early as possible, so that their work can be chargeable to clients. Phillips, who is the company’s global head of HR, talent acquisition, and onboarding, likes to know that when he makes a hire, it’s clear right away where that person will fit in the organization. Since expanding the internship program two years ago, Avanade converts roughly 80% of its interns into full-time employees.For those young workers, “the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is going to be key,” Phillips said. “We have a number of academies that we’ve spun up across Avanade where we bring in talent from non-traditional backgrounds and non-tech backgrounds, or we bring people working in sectors that we do see becoming commoditized in the near term and retrain them on the new set of skills.”In other sectors, where companies might have an older workforce, the retirement of baby boomers has created a knowledge drain. For process industry companies, which includes everything from metals and mining to paper and packaging, retirements are an acute problem and recruiting the next generation is a challenge. In such cases, AI can be a talent attractor, with employers positioning themselves as places where workers can use the latest tools and tech with less toil. In fact, a study by Boston Consulting Group and MIT found that when employees see the value of AI, they feel “more competent in their roles, more autonomous in their actions, and more connected to their work, colleagues, partners, and customers.”AI’s Short-Term Gain and Long-Term ImplicationsBusiness Insider reported that professional-services giant PwC is scaling back on hiring entry-level talent by nearly one-third over the next few years, citing “the rapid pace of technological change.” More broadly, BI has reported in May that AI could reshape consulting at every level of the business.If companies do rely too heavily on AI instead of young talent, “it is going to be short-term gain and massive long-term implications,” ZRG’s Kaplan warned. “If we find ourselves losing out at the entry level, it’s going to have a compounding effect, and it’s going to ultimately affect leadership pipelines.”Some employers are betting big on the opposite approach. “We’re helping a ton of clients think through AI investment and bring AI experts across their portfolio,” Kaplan said. Law, consulting, and private equity firms are doubling down on entry-level hiring. They see today’s graduates as a rare asset: digitally native, agile, and curious about technology. “Private equity tends to really see trends. They see trends and they understand.”Some leaders in the tech industry share this philosophy. Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman called replacing junior workers with AI “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard,” arguing that this segment is the “least expensive” and “the most leaned into your AI tools.”Publicis, the global ad and PR company, launched a program to help jump-start these junior workers by building foundational skills. Called Ignite, the two-and-a-half-day kickoff program for early-career hires focuses on communication, time management, and business acumen. “We used to wait, but that’s when Ignite came to fruition. The goal is to get them to greater impact quicker,” said Nikki Slowinski, the Publicis group’s EVP of talent experience and development, at a From Day One conference.Without young workers, corporate culture will suffer. “You want that youthful excitement that typically comes from having new college grads and young professionals starting their career,” Kaplan said. “They socialize, they go out, they’re the ones who show up to the office baseball game and the office run in Central Park. If you don’t have that, it will erode your culture.”Augmentation, Not Replacement Trent Cotton, head of talent acquisition insights at iCIMS, told From Day One that while he can’t directly link fewer entry-level hires to AI, the trend does reflect a broader workforce-planning shift. Employers are asking where new hires are essential, and where AI can augment existing teams.Because AI is boosting individual productivity, some companies are consolidating roles and rethinking headcount. They’re asking whether they really need as many full-time employees, focusing instead on where those roles add the most value.Cotton believes the future is in augmentation, not replacement. AI is going to supercharge the young worker, he says. It normally takes 90 days to ramp up a new employee, but with AI, an employer can help an entry-level worker apply their education and start contributing right away. “I mean, AI can help them almost from day one.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Featured photo by FG Trade Latin/iStock by Getty Images)
What Unusual Jobs Taught Me About Hiring, Retention, and the Talent You’re Overlooking
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 09, 2025Paddy Fanning never set out to become one of the best sheepdog trainers in the world. He was a cowboy working on a Canadian cattle ranch when he came across an old book on horsemanship that described the magical give-and-take between humans and animals. Back in Ireland, as he worked to recover from a drinking problem, he put those lessons into practice with a border collie on his father’s sheep farm, and, in the process, discovered a new sense of purpose.Twenty years later, Paddy has represented Ireland in international herding dog competitions and earned a reputation as one of the finest trainers alive. “I’m probably still a bit unemployable,” he told me, laughing. “You hear my job there, and I don’t really have one. And yet we do okay. Dogs have given me all that. I just feel glad with the way the whole deal turned out.”For the last six years, I’ve been writing about work. How people get their jobs and how they lose them, the relationship between employer and the employed, and how all of us find meaning in our work. I frequently meet people who are unhappy with their careers. But I noticed something: People who have unconventional jobs often are happy with their work.So I started searching for the people who have jobs they don’t tell you about in school, roles that don’t show up on job boards: the death doulas, sheepdog trainers, puppeteers, and Foley artists of the world. And I made a podcast about it, called How to Be Anything.Each episode tells the story of someone with an unusual job, and after interviewing 15 of them, I realized their lessons aren’t only for people whose careers take them off the beaten path. Their wisdom and experiences are relevant for anyone working today–including those in corporate America. Some of my findings: Self-Determination Is a Powerful Retention ToolFrom Day One contributing editor and journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza takes you inside the world of unique and unexpected jobs in her podcastAlmost everyone I spoke with chose their job intentionally. Sometimes it took years (or decades) to find, but in the end they carved out space to do work they found meaningful. That self-determination is a powerful reason they stay.Puppetry artist Heidi Rugg built a career by weaving together all the art forms she loves, and her work became stronger once she focused on the environmental themes that deeply matter to her. On the TV Show Dimension 20, lorekeeper (kind of like a script supervisor) Skye Smith designed their own system for tracking the plot, a process they owned from start to finish. For Smith, the real satisfaction comes from being taken seriously. “If I have opinions, I get to say them and they get taken into consideration, which I think is a huge blessing, especially as someone who's young and I didn’t finish college,” Smith told me.And when veterinarian Cindy Otto worked at Ground Zero after 9/11, she saw firsthand the need for better medical care for search-and-rescue dogs. Backed by the University of Pennsylvania, she launched an entire research program to address it, and now is on the leading edge of working-dog science. When workers have the freedom to pursue ideas that matter personally to them, they’re far more likely to stick around.Everyone Needs to See the Fruits of Their LaborWork feels meaningful when you can see its impact.Forensic artist Melissa Cooper has seen her sketches lead directly to the capture of violent criminals, and she draws joy from knowing she’s giving power and a voice to survivors. Gavin Cox, a research scientist who works a mile underground searching for dark matter, described the satisfaction of spending a month designing a procedure to safely move liquified xenon gas, a high-stakes task that required precision and patience. “That’s when I feel proud of my work,” he told me.Employees don’t need a dramatic story to feel accomplished, but they do need to see that the outcomes of their contributions matter.I asked veterinarian Cindy Otto what she thinks of her career now that retirement is in sight. She told me that at a recent veterinary symposium, a presenter asked the crowd for a show of hands: Who had been affected by the Penn Vet Working Dog Center and the work they’ve done? Every single person in the room raised their hand. “I think about it a lot,” she told me. “I’ve made a difference. I’ve made an impact,” she said. Excellence Requires Freedom to FailNo one starts out as an award-winning sheepdog trainer or an award-winning Foley artist. You start as lousy, and then you become okay, and then you become good–and then you become great.That’s why the famous Jack Welch mentality of routinely cutting lowest performers (a practice now back in vogue in 2025) is so damaging. It sends a message to your employees that stumbling is a punishable offense, and eliminates the top performers of the future.Organizations that want innovation have to accept that employees will struggle, or even fail, on their way to mastery.Careers Are Built on Soft SkillsBrendon King has been climbing 500-foot cell towers for more than a decade. The hardest part isn’t fixing the electronics, it’s staying calm when the steel tower sways like a noodle in the wind. Patience, composure, and a little bit of thrill-seeking keep him safe. The technical skills, like repairing fiber optic cables and network switches, those are things he learned on the job. But the best part? “It’s a constant adventure, no matter how you look at it,” he said. “I’ve been in places where people have lived there their entire lives and they’ve never once seen the view that I get to see. It’s amazing.”Similarly, Erin Bishop spent two decades in market research before becoming a death doula. You might be surprised that running a focus group translates quite well to conducting community discussions about death and dying. “Having a career that helps me be a better person in the world—I never thought I would have that in my life,” she told me.Too often, employers seek out candidates who have direct experience, and miss out on remarkably talented people with unconventional career paths.Work Should Be EnjoyableBusiness leaders love to talk about purpose and meaning. They want employees to connect to the company mission, touting its ability to increase engagement and retention. It’s true, and there’s evidence to back it up. But purpose alone isn’t enough.The people I spoke with not only find meaning in their unconventional jobs, but enjoy them in the moment. An employee may love working at a company that saves lives with medical equipment or helps people afford homes. But if the day-to-day is tedious, they won’t stay. Meaning is important, but fun doesn’t get enough credit.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Featured photo courtesy of forensic artist Melissa Cooper)
The HR Metrics That Matter: Defining ROI in a People-First Culture
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 08, 2025In the rush to adopt the latest AI tools and maximize efficiency and output, employers may be overlooking the one factor that gives them a competitive edge: people.“It’s the unpredictable, varied creativity of humans that actually allows one business to leapfrog over another,” said Ken Matos, director of market insights at HR analytics platform HiBob, during a From Day One webinar. “When you’re people-first, you’re really looking for ways to get the right people to advance your business strategy most effectively.”Kenneth Matos of HiBob spoke during the webinar (company photo)A “people-first” culture, as Matos describes it, is one grounded in the belief that it’s people, not processes, not technology, that makes a business successful. That means designing the right roles for the organization, then ensuring the right people are in those roles. When employees feel well-matched, supported, and recognized, Matos says, “you get increases in creativity, novel ideas, and their ability to adapt and learn. That’s really valuable when you’re in a growth phase.”Flashpoint, a cyber threat intelligence platform, learned this firsthand. Several years ago, the company enjoyed a hiring surge. Headcount was growing at a steady clip and business was booming. But Lane McFarland, Flashpoint’s senior director of talent management, eventually hit pause. He began to question whether the pace of hiring was tracking closely enough with the company’s long-term goals.“We have a very complex and unique organization,” McFarland said. Flashpoint employs threat intelligence analysts from “three-letter” agencies like the CIA and FBI, vulnerability analysts who adopt criminal personas to draw out hackers, as well as accountants, HR partners, and other corporate staff. Each group brings its own professional culture and expectations about the working environment. “We want to make sure that we are matching both what we need and what they need,” said McFarland. “We don’t want to get to a point where it’s not a fit because it’s our fault.”So, McFarland redefined how Flashpoint approaches hiring, beginning with clear expectations. Job descriptions now outline outcome milestones for the first 30, 60, and 90 days, and checkpoints take place accordingly. Those check-ins aren’t just about evaluating employees, they’re also about ensuring the company is delivering on its side of the relationship.The company’s needs change, just as employees’ needs do–McFarland knows that. And rarely is someone so mismatched to a role that it can’t work. If a new hire lacks a requisite skill, McFarland can help them get it. If the role isn’t the right fit, he encourages pivots. Sometimes even outside the company.For some leaders, “people-first” suggests benefits packages and sentiment surveys, but Matos and McFarland encourage HR leaders to think deeper. “I always recommend HR leaders expand the scope of what they think of as well-being,” McFarland said. For him, it’s about whether employees feel fulfilled, valued, and recognized.Matos puts it this way: “What is a reasonable amount of work to give people before things break down? In an ideal world, we would say, ‘let’s measure their well-being. If their well-being goes down, that’s too much work. That’s not an ROI conversation. That’s an ethical conversation.”“Engagement is a symptom,” McFarland said. “We need to understand what’s the underlying problem, how we can impact that from an HR perspective, and whether we can expand our view of what HR leaders actually have the power to shape across the business.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, HiBob, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by courtneyk/iStock)
The Untapped Power of Caregiving Benefits: Unlocking Productivity and Retention
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 03, 2025As the cost of childcare and eldercare increases and U.S. workforce shrinks, “it’s going to be ever more important that those who have caregiving responsibilities, who need to or wish to stay in the workforce, have the support they need,” said Phyllis Stewart Pires, the AVP of employee support programs at Stanford University.Childcare and eldercare are increasingly out of reach for many households: Not only is care often cost-prohibitive, it’s not always available. There are often long waitlists for care centers and some rural areas may have no options at all. Companies are increasingly aware that the need for childcare support was not just a circumstance of the pandemic, but a workforce issue with consequences for employee productivity, retention, and equity.Caregiving spans from the highchair to the rocking chair, says Dave Jacobs, co-CEO of caregiver support platform Homethrive. “It doesn’t discriminate based on education or socio-economic means. Even if you have the will and knowledge to be able to find the support you need, it’s becoming more expensive, and most of it is private pay,” he said during a From Day One webinar on caregiving benefits. Without support, the stress of taking care of family members encroaches on employee well-being and productivity. The result is distracted employees, or worse: preventable attrition.Caregiver dropout affects the whole talent pipeline. “As people are offered opportunities to move from, say, individual contributor to manager, manager to director, director to VP, sometimes they will decline those opportunities if they have a really stable caregiving situation and don’t want to disrupt that,” Jacobs said. Some are forced out of the workforce entirely. “It’s not only about losing opportunities, it’s also about losing the dream job or sometimes just losing everything.” Caregiving is not only a matter of health and wellness, it’s a matter of equitable opportunities for everyone,” said Arturo Arteaga, senior director of total rewards at VCA Animal Hospitals. Panelists spoke about "The Untapped Power of Caregiving Benefits: Unlocking Productivity and Retention" during the webinar (photo by From Day One)Forward-thinking employers are experimenting with a range of support. At Stanford, on-site childcare centers provide access to care and create jobs in the community, many of which were wiped out by the pandemic. Pires sees the potential for public-private partnerships to fill gaps in care. At VCA, where 80% of employees work on-site, Arteaga has introduced backup care.Some employers are building networks of vetted providers in communities where employees live, said Jacobs, offering subsidies for regular care, keeping backup care options available, and making schedules flexible when possible. At international law firm Sheppard Mullin, senior HR director Thomas Adrian is focused on gender equity, as the burden on caregiving falls primarily on women. “Because of the partnership model, we really want to maintain that gender equality between male and female,” he said, so employees are afforded as much paid time off as needed. The firm also defines caregiving broadly. “We won’t define the word family. If you live with your brother and he needs help, or his child needs help, we’re going to extend it to them. If you are concerned about someone you define as family, it’s going to come back and affect your work.”Flexibility is paramount, says Erin Fitzsimmons, the global head of talent attraction at TE Connectivity. One of her U.S.-based colleagues works with teams in China, and after putting her kids to bed, takes calls with her overseas colleagues. Fitzsimmons herself relied on the flexibility last year when she returned from parental leave. Unable to travel, she took overseas calls remotely while her team made the trip. “Being a global company, not everyone is on your typical 9-to-5. It all comes back to culture,” she said. Communication is paramount. Adrian at Sheppard Mullin makes sure caregiving benefits are automatically highlighted in any conversation about leave. Fitzsimmons created comprehensive benefits packets detailing when and how leave is available, and Arteaga stresses consistency: “Not once a year or twice a year. Constant,” he said. Some benefits don’t matter much until you need them–often right away. When that happens, employees need information close at hand. Employers investing in caregiving, from last-minute backup help to community infrastructure are not only helping their own employees, they’re protecting the future of the business.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Homethrive, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by AleksandarNakic/iStock)
Supporting Financial Wellness Beyond the 401(k): Why Financial Stress Is a Workplace Matter
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza September 02, 2025A common misconception among employers is that high earners are financially stable. But as Mamie Wheaton, director of financial planning at LearnLux, points out, that isn’t always the case. “High income doesn’t necessarily equal peace of mind. Financial stress at any income level can lead to burnout, disengagement, and even turnover,” she said.Another common misconception: thinking that offering a 401(k) checks the box on financial wellness. In reality, employees are juggling far more immediate concerns, like credit card debt, student loans, or childcare costs. “If someone can’t manage today’s financial stressors, retirement planning is often the last thing on their mind,” Wheaton said.She and her colleague Jane Lund, who leads regional sales at LearnLux, a financial well-being platform tailored to individual needs, presented a From Day One webinar on how employers can support financial wellness beyond just retirement plans. In it they discussed the very real implications of financial stress on employee retention, engagement, and productivity.Uncovering the Source of Financial StressEmployees don’t always know what kind of help they need, or how to ask for it. “People often feel shame about their financial stress, especially if it’s tied to family building, life changes, or illness,” Lund said. Those needs often show up in hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts, upticks in personal loans, or rising absenteeism. “Sometimes all three,” she said.For HR leaders, this presents a challenge. Financial struggles are seldom obvious, but the downstream effects–like absenteeism, disengagement, and attrition–are very real. As Lund put it, “You don’t really see people raising their hands saying, ‘I need help,’ so how are leaders supposed to know what to prioritize?”Even when employees do schedule a call with a financial planner, like those at LearnLux, they might open with a question about retirement planning, but the real issue could lie elsewhere. That’s when licensed, certified planners like Wheaton dig deeper, looking for the root problem, so they can help employees feel empowered to make better decisions for themselves. Sometimes a single conversation can make a difference, while others will need regular touchpoints over weeks or months to find their footing. And for everyone, these needs may change over time.Why Financial Wellness Is a Workplace MatterThe implications of financial wellbeing are closely tied to safety, productivity, and retention. One LearnLux client, a construction company, launched a zero-injury initiative and discovered through surveys and conversations that employees’ financial stress was a key factor. “We see that a lot in frontline workforces,” Lund said. And not just in blue collar workplaces, the same is true in higher-earning industries, like healthcare.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the discussion among leaders at LearnLux (photo by From Day One)By introducing financial wellness support, the company helped employees stabilize their personal finances, which in turn supported their safety goals. Retention improved, too. Based on their annual survey, “about 79% of employees who have used LearnLux for three months or more say they’re more likely to stay at their current job,” Lund said.“If we can be there to help new employees start off on the right foot, it’s going to help with retention,” Wheaton added. “It’s also going to help reduce 401(k) loans, credit card debt, and overall stress at work.” Small changes that add up to a healthier, safer, and more resilient workforce. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, LearnLux, for sponsoring this webinar.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Puttachat Kumkrong/iStock)
Handling the Flood of Job Applicants: How Employers Can Escape the AI Feedback Loop
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza August 19, 2025When Alexandra Magaard applies for a job these days, the problem isn’t about having to wait long for a response. In fact, it’s usually only seconds before she’s invited to be interviewed. “You submit your application, and then immediately you get an automated text saying, ‘Are you available for a short call with a recruiter?’ It’s instantaneous.” Magaard, who has eight years of experience in public policy, is eager to get back to work. She has been applying for tech policy jobs in mid-size companies and consultancies since late 2024. But when the call comes, it’s not a recruiter on the other end: It’s an AI bot reading a script. “The AI was like, ‘How long have you worked in policy? Where are you based? Are you open for a full-time role? Are you open to remote?’” she said. Answers to all of these questions were clearly laid out in her application.Despite selectively and thoughtfully applying to roles for months, Magaard believes she’s is a casualty of the AI arms race taking place in the job market right now. With fewer open positions and more people competing for them, job seekers are using AI-powered tools to churn out applications at an unprecedented rate. Employers, in turn, are adding AI to their recruiting stacks to keep up with the avalanche of resumes that arrive by the thousands. At New York Life, recruiters receive as many as 100,000 applications for 1,400 open roles. Based on those numbers, “it’s easier to get into Harvard than it might be to get a job at New York Life,” said Glenn Padewski, the firm’s head of experienced-professional hiring and executive search, during a From Day One conference earlier this year. HR analyst Josh Bersin told From Day One a similar story via email: One of his clients posted a banking IT job at midnight and clocked more than 1,000 applications by 12:05 a.m. While not quite on the level of requests for Taylor Swift tickets when they go on sale, most employers aren’t equipped to thoughtfully consider that many applications.Job postings are proliferating as well, even though actual hiring is sluggish in many industries, because companies still want to stock their talent pipeline or test the current talent pool. Recruiters are now juggling 56% more job postings than a few years ago, said Steve Bartel, founder and CEO of recruiting platform GEM, during a From Day One webinar. Applicant numbers have tripled for many roles, yet recruiting teams aren’t growing. “In fact, 20% of our customers see thousands of applicants for a single role,” he said.“How can an employer deal with these floods,” Bersin wonders, “and what possible good is this ‘AI-war’ doing for job seekers?”‘The Process Has Become So Automated. Who Do I Follow Up With?’Layoffs, hiring slowdowns, and a fresh wave of college grads has made looking for a job feel like a slog, especially for the class of 2025. “The labor market for recent college grads in 2025 is among the most challenging in the last decade,” Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told NPR last month. Job searches are getting longer for everyone, and candidate morale is dipping.To sift through the mountain of applications, companies are leaning hard on AI: one-way video or voice interviews, skills tests, and automated chatbots, especially at the top of the hiring funnel. Some candidates appreciate the instant screenings, saying they feel it finally gives them a shot at jobs they might otherwise be overlooked for.But there’s a downside to the deluge for both employers and prospective workers. Many applications aren’t from genuinely interested candidates, and others contain fudged credentials or skills tests completed with AI. Fake and fraudulent job applications have employers arming up even more, with identity verification and deepfake detection software.For candidates, the process has become exhausting: long applications, multiple interviews, unpaid test projects, and then often radio silence from the hiring company. “The process has become so automated, that it’s like, Who do I follow up with?” said Magaard. After AI-powered screening calls with three different companies, she’s never received a human response.Why Some Recruiters Are Going Old-SchoolWhile employers add layers of friction and sophisticated screens to sift out casual (or outright fake) applicants, AI alone won’t solve the problem.“I think there’s going to be more recruiter-led sourcing, more hiring-manager-led sourcing, and more referral work, so that someone is vetting the candidate organically before you’re filling the role,” said Ken Matos, director of market insights at HR tech platform HiBob. To some degree, tech is out. Analog is in. In other words, recruiters are going old-school. Companies like Cisco and McKinsey are bringing back in-person interviews after years of defaulting to phone calls and Zooms. Recruiters are relying on word-of-mouth referrals to surface good candidates actually interested in the job. “Many hiring leaders tell me the quality of candidates has gone down, so there’s even more effort going into human sourcing and recruiting,” Bersin said. And rather than take-home projects that are easily faked, some companies are hiring top candidates for a day so they can “try out” for the job.To free up more time for human contact with top candidates, HR teams are using AI to handle the tedious tasks of recruiting, like interview scheduling and outreach. The goal: to build a smaller, higher-quality pipeline from the start. Bersin notes that in the current climate, “careful, deliberate job seekers are more or less ‘left out’ in this mess,” and employers have to work harder to make their employer brand, values, and workplace expectations clear up front. Honesty about workload, flexibility, and culture can help filter out candidates before they apply.As for the job seekers, Matos suggests that the ability to apply to hundreds of jobs in minutes may be hurting more than helping. Volume doesn’t produce results, and there’s only so much rejection one can handle. People will benefit by applying to fewer jobs, getting fewer rejections, and being more likely to get an interview, “rather than this black hole of dumping effort and energy, then just feeling unwanted.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, a podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo-illustration by Montri Uaroon/iStock by Getty Images)
Embracing Inclusive Care With Menopause and Midlife Health Benefits
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza August 14, 2025When menopause became a regular topic among benefits leaders it “validated the experiences of millions of women who previously suffered in silence,” said Dr. Toni Morrissey, an OB-GYN practicing at Maven Clinic.“We’re seeing more open dialogue, improved resources, and inclusive policies that recognize menopause as a workplace health issue and not just a personal one,” she said during a From Day One webinar on embracing inclusive care. It’s made a difference for so many women, but there’s still distance to travel.Dr. Morrissey laid out the ways employers can design a menopause care plan that supports women, and the business, holistically. “Menopause symptoms can significantly impact productivity, retention and morale, and supporting this phase of life shows respect for longevity and loyalty in the workforce–especially when women are at the height of their careers.”The Barriers to Menopause CareOne significant challenge is that there’s no shortage of information about menopause available online, “but the quality is a different story. We see everything from outdated advice and one-size-fits-all solutions,” Morrissey said. Not to mention miracle cures and snake oil. “I’m so glad the conversation is being held in public,” she said. “It’s time for that. But our research shows that over a third of women see menopause related ads at least a few times a week, and more than half of them say it makes them feel so overwhelmed.”Employees need evidence-based guidance delivered by board-certified providers trained specifically in menopause care, and this is where employers have a huge opportunity. A 2023 AARP survey found that 54% of women said employers need to do more to support workers experiencing menopause. In fact, 73% of employers agreed. If companies can offer clinical, board-certified care with peer-reviewed education, “that kind of support really cuts through the noise and helps employees make confident and informed decisions about their health.”The internet is full of myths and misinformation, like the notion that menopause lasts only a year, when in reality symptoms can last up to 10 years, Morrissey says. The biggest and most damaging myth, she said, is that “menopause marks the end of productivity. And in reality, many people hit their career peak during this stage of life, and this phase really deserves support and not stigma.”Where Employers Can Get Started with Menopause Care Dr. Morrissey encouraged employers to start by listening. What are your employees struggling with and where do your current benefits fall short? Build upon the needs and gaps. For instance, menopause-specific care isn’t available in some areas, and employees may need remote access to providers. Additionally, “transgender, non-binary, and intersex people experience menopause too, and they often face even greater gaps in care,” she said. Another group who often gets overlooked are those experiencing medically induced early menopause.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza intervirwed Dr. Toni Morrissey of Maven Clinic (photo by From Day One)This is just another reason menopause care should never be siloed. It can be a meaningful component of an overall health strategy that comprises mental healthcare, reproductive care, and other midlife considerations, like caregiving benefits and career development. And because it supports high-value workers like those at the peak of their careers—consider it a retention strategy that protects institutional knowledge and leadership.To make it work, a clear, well-communicated rollout plan is essential. “It doesn’t just offer support, it sends a powerful message, which is that your health is a business priority.” Seeking Help for Menopause SymptomsBy the time Dr. Morrissey sees a patient, they may have been experiencing symptoms for years, symptoms that have gotten in the way of daily functioning in life and at work. “What’s heartbreaking is how many of them say they’re no longer able to do the very work that once brought them success and confidence,” she said. Proper care can make the difference. “The moment that always sticks with me is when people will say, ‘I feel like I got my life back.’ That’s what good care can do. It doesn’t just manage symptoms. It restores identity, energy and self-belief.”Of course, stigma around menopause stands in the way of many seeking care. ERGs can be a powerful tool for forming connections, but they should be optional, and they can’t be the only avenue for support, she said, especially where cultural norms discourage open conversation about healthcare. Employers can help normalize talk about menopause by making it a part of company-wide health education and communication. Appoint leaders as menopause champions talk about their own experience and help break down stigma. “Employees should never feel pressured to speak about their menopause experience broadly, but they should have a place that they can easily go for support, and building a supportive culture starts at the top.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Maven Clinic, for sponsoring this webinar.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by SDI Productions/iStock)
Smarter Benefits by Design: Leveraging Tech and AI for Clarity, Impact, and Innovation
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza August 07, 2025Answering benefits questions used to be one of HR’s most time-consuming tasks. Now, companies are using AI not only to automate those routine inquiries, but to deliver faster, more personalized support, at any time of day. Benefits leaders are using AI to make small teams feel much bigger.The challenges of benefits administration haven’t changed much over the years, but AI is finally offering new solutions. “The common barriers are the same, whether you’re talking about AI and technology or the traditional way of administering benefits,” said Joanne Gloster, director of benefits at professional services firm Davies North America. Employees often don’t know what benefits are available, or when. Some worry about cost. Others are concerned about privacy–especially around health or financial benefits. With AI, benefits teams are sharpening their communication strategies and making answers easier to access.Gloster spoke during an executive panel discussion on the topic during From Day One’s July virtual conference on employee benefits. From guiding employees through leave policies to financial planning before surgery, today’s benefits tech is smarter, more tailored, and is empowering lean teams to do more with less. But for many HR leaders, the real goal isn’t just efficiency, it’s creating space for meaningful human connection.Personalized Benefits Help, Any Time of DayAt global life sciences MilliporeSigma, head of benefits strategy Elizabeth Chappelear is leaning on their benefits administrator’s AI engine to tackle those “first level” inquiries, like dependent document verification or basic coverage questions. Chappelear said it handled more than 7,800 conversations in the first quarter of the year, 84% of which were resolved without human intervention. Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the discussion (photo by From Day One)The company is in the process of creating its own AI suite tailored to internal benefits policies and programs. Nevertheless, human connection remains top of mind for Chappelear, who said that “it’s one of the things that we ask during RFPs or new vendors. We’re always asking about their technology. But the flip side of that is, what’s our access to humans?” At financial wellness platform Northstar, the company has developed custom AI engines trained by financial advisors. The solutions were built for its customers based on their employees’ unique benefits and compensation. But employees don’t need a benefits-specific question to get help. It might be, “I’m thinking about scheduling surgery next year,” said Erin Donahue, the company’s director of advice strategy. “Our AI will discuss health plan choice and make sure they evaluate the various plans offered, but it will also bring in other related benefits that could help.”While Northstar won’t be replacing their financial advisors with AI tools, when employees choose to use AI, the answers are specifically tailored to individuals, “so they can ask about benefits or personal finances in general, and it will answer in a personalized way based on everything we already know about that employee,” said Donahue. Information tech firm TransUnion is also building out a process that employees can use to help with policies. “If someone’s looking to potentially take a leave of absence, we would use our AI that would then guide them through the process,” Sherry Nelson, the company’s senior director of global benefits said. Maximizing Reach for Small TeamsAt Davies, Gloster supports an employee population of 2,800 with a team of three. AI has made it possible for her team to be more productive and precise. By using AI to tailor benefits communications, she’s able to segment who’s getting the messages and how. “For instance, if I wanted to send something out to folks who are utilizing the FSA and they seem to be floundering,” she would ask the tool who those folks are and how she should tailor a message specifically for them. “I refer to it as cheating, because that’s what it feels like to me,” she said. “But the truth is, it’s allowed our team to feel much, much bigger than it really is.”On the contrary, said LaToya Lyn, the chief people officer at Thinkhuman, an executive coaching platform, “It’s not cheating, it’s being more efficient.” Just comb through the list of requests related to benefits, and you’ll find they’re often very basic: Where can I find this? When is that going to happen? Very few of those require a human response, and AI can provide answers much faster, at any time of day.Lyn described setting up a text messaging bot for HR questions in a past role. When they did so, “we saw our tickets go from 100 to 25. And what was so amazing about that experience was people were able to get what they needed very quickly.” And if the AI got stuck, they were routed to a person.Despite the burst of enthusiasm for AI, Nelson at TransUnion wants to ensure they don’t lose connection with their employees, and in fact use tech and all its potential to fortify the relationship. “Part of our culture is being authentic and being present and social,” she said. “Some of it is just leveraging the technology to free us up to have those meaningful conversations and meeting the associate where they’re at. But if it hadn’t been for AI, we wouldn’t really be able to get there.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism. She is the host of How to Be Anything, the podcast about people with unusual jobs.(Photo by Galeanu Mihai/iStock)
When CEOs Talk Tough, What Should HR Leaders Bring to the Conversation?
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza July 22, 2025Remember the days when CEOs spoke honeyed words about the irreplaceability of great talent and promised to shield workers from burnout and grinding daily trips to the office?Now, however, the tone of employee relations has changed. One after the other, CEOs march through our news feeds, declaring that employees are acting entitled, resistant to change, and dispensable. Reddit’s CEO has accused employees of not working hard and Uber’s CEO recently joined a growing cohort of executives who have told employees to return to the office or beat it. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for his part, ordered workers back to the office five days a week, said AI will shrink the workforce, and that employees had better figure out “how to get more done with scrappier teams.” Earlier this year, Shopify’s chief executive told employees not to request new hires unless they can prove AI can’t do the job.With prominent CEOs going rogue from the chorus of empathy, how can chief HR officers adapt to the new tone? To some degree, CEOs are being transparent about new economic realities. But when executives are feeling like they can shrug off pressure to consider worker well-being or make good on prior commitments, what is a CHRO to do? This is where CHROs can be caught in the middle. Their role is help promote organizational success, but part of that mission is to make their company a great place to work. CHROs occupy a vital role in the C-suite, serving as liaison between employers and the employed, and as a result, a cooperative CHRO-CEO relationship is required. In fact, a change in CEO leads to the exit of nearly three-quarters of CHROs, said Rosanna Trasatti, CEO at Eleva Executive Leadership Advisory, during Fortune’s recent Workplace Innovation Summit. For the newest generation of CHROs, part of the job is making top executives palatable to employees and to the public. The head of HR is “one of the few people at an organization who has both the legitimacy and the duty to provide feedback to the CEO when their behavior goes against stated organizational values,” Alex Kirss of Gartner told From Day One. Kirss, who leads the CHRO-effectiveness research team in Gartner's HR practice, added: “The CHRO’s role is not to be a disciplinarian, but rather a coach to help their CEO be the best version of themselves.” Unless there’s a clear ethical violation that a company’s board of directors needs to know about, Kirss said, feedback to the CEO should be private and confidential. Then, the CHRO should give the CEO some space to reflect and pick out what they’ll do next.In many cases, CEOs will listen to feedback from their C-suite colleagues and employees at large. When the companies Klarna and Duolingo said they would begin replacing employees with artificial intelligence, the idea was so unpopular that both CEOs reversed course, at least in part. Earlier this year, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon apologized for cursing in an in town hall meeting while expressing his annoyance at organized resistance to his RTO edicts. While high-profile CEOs may be vocal, but “our research shows that 95% of CEOs prefer to stay out of the limelight,” said Josh Bersin, the HR analyst and CEO of the Josh Bersin Co.On the other hand, some notable CEOs have simply rejected dissent. Bloomberg columnist Beth Kowitt noted that quashing dissent has been added back into the playbook. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has reportedly ousted his critics of his leadership style and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is supposedly uninterested in hearing input from employees.The CEO Class Already Has a Mistrust Issue With the PublicThe viral reaction to a moment captured on video last week, when tech CEO Andy Byron was seen on a concert “kiss cam” embracing his chief people officer Kristin Cabot, underscored the rising public mistrust of C-suite leadership right now. When the episode prompted scrutiny of Byron's track record as a corporate leader, a checkered past emerged. As chief revenue officer for a previous employer, Cybereason, “multiple former employees said Mr. Byron would lash out against employees who disagreed with him, including threatening to fire them. ‘You couldn’t challenge him,’ a former employee who worked for Mr. Byron said,” as reported at the time in The Information, a tech-industry journal.Indeed, part of the public response to the moment seemed to be fueled by a growing trust gap between corporate executives and the general public, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor of management at Yale University, told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s a certain schadenfreude associated with this,” he said. “Here’s a takedown of the ‘haves’ versus the ‘have nots.’”Where does this mean we stand in employee relations, between the cycle of threats vs. rapprochement? Some observers wonder if we’re witnessing the end of corporate empathy—at least for now. The balance of power is changing hands, and for the most part, employers are getting their druthers. “The shift in tone marks a shift in power now that companies are shrinking their white-collar staff. With jobs harder to find, many workers are seeing perks disappear and their grievances ignored,” wrote Chip Cutter in the Journal.How new is the tough talk in corporate America? “I’m not clear how much changed in the first place,” said Alison Taylor, NYU professor and author of Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World, in a call with From Day One. “I think what we’re really doing is speaking the quiet part out loud.”The Trump Factor in Executive ToneMuch of the current condescension among some CEOs seems licensed by President Trump, who has attacked the integrity and competence of his own workers, describing the more than 2 million federal workers as “replaceable.” This is not the tone CEO have traditionally embraced. “CEOs live pretty scripted professional lives. They’re trained to tell investors nothing, read prepared texts for town halls, and stick to talking points on TV,” the journalist Liz Hoffman wrote in a Semafor Business newsletter earlier this year. “Now they see Trump speaking freely, and with few consequences … corporate America is unshackled, and the mics are everywhere.”The Trump factor has applied not just to tone but to substance as well. Take, for example, the very public tarnishing of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Since Trump signed an executive order prohibiting DEI programs in federal agencies and government contractors, many huge companies, including Walmart and Target have scrubbed mentions of DEI from their career pages or publicly announced retirement of the programs. For many executives, however, DEI is problematic only in name. “In my experience, here’s what most CEOs believe to be true: a diverse and engaged workforce is good for business; talking about DEI externally is not,” wrote Fortune’s Diane Brady in the CEO Daily newsletter. “Though plenty of companies have publicly disavowed their DEI initiatives, other leaders are wondering how to quietly continue building a workforce that reflects their values in this climate.”Cosmetics company E.L.F Beauty is doubling down on its DEI efforts, with CEO Tarang Amin appearing on CNN to talk about their commitment. And Dimon of JPMorgan, appears unintimidated by activist investors intent on challenging the company’s DEI programs. “Bring them on,” he said in an interview with CNBC at Davos this year.In this environment, CHROs will need to choose their battles when it comes to managing their CEOs. Those HR leaders, Bersin said, will have to take “a more proactive role in executive coaching, crisis management, and internal communications.” Mitigating reputational risks will take stronger governance structures and messaging plans. His guidance: What CEOs say publicly should be well-considered about reflecting the company’s values. Since companies wield a great amount of influence in individuals’ lives, they will be called on to respond to a growing mix of economic, political, and environmental pressures. Responding in a careful way will call for new corporate initiatives and management skills. “These are still companies full of real human beings who are a mix of opinions and races and genders,” Taylor said. “Some of them are going to be affected by some of these decisions, and they’re going to be looking, in many cases, to their employer for protection, for advice, for policies–for all sorts of things.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Featured photo: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who told his workers this year that they can go elsewhere if they don't like his RTO changes, at a conference in 2023. AP photo by Eric Risberg)
Building a Veteran-Ready Workforce: Empowering Your Military Hiring and Retention Strategy
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza July 10, 2025Every year, 200,000 service members exit the U.S. military and enter the civilian workforce. Dave Harrison was one of them. He’s currently the executive director for workforce development and government relations at recruiting Fastport, but once he was a U.S. Army paratrooper jumping out of planes.Veterans are a dedicated group with experience in extreme environments, Harrison says. For many, a work week isn’t just 40 hours. During deployment, it’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “I learned from the United States military, how to lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way–and when to do it. That’s very valuable.”These are skills that translate well to civilian employment, yet many employers don’t take full advantage of the veteran talent pool. And then there’s the vast network of military spouses. Emily Peacock, military talent and program manager at Fastport, is a military spouse of 16 years, in which time she’s lived in seven different U.S. states and two counties overseas. Like many military spouses,” she said, I’ve had to rebuild my career again and again, adjusting to new places, new time zones, and new roles. Along the way, I’ve worked for higher education, data analysis, administrative support, and now I’m focused on workforce development.”Together, Harrison and Peacock are forging relationships between veterans and employers, connecting the communities to create meaningful work. They spoke during a From Day One webinar on building a veteran-ready workforce with better hiring and retention strategies. The Veteran Talent PoolHarrison consistently hears three questions from employers: Where do I find veterans, how do I recruit them, and how do I retain them?Veterans can be found through traditional recruiting channels or local veterans organizations, of course, but not typically critical numbers. Yet the talent is there. Harrison and Peacock advised looking for channels that bring transitioning service members, and their families, into civilian life.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza spoke with Emily Peacock and Dave Harrison of Fastport (photo by From Day One)“The wonderful thing about a veteran,” said Harrison, “is they don’t have to be told every meal is going to be a feast and every day is going to be a holiday. They don’t need their back rubbed every day. They want to be treated fairly.”But they also have to see a career path at your company—a future and a means of developing professionally. “One of the biggest hurdles that we see is translating that military experience into civilian terms,” Peacock said. “Their job titles or accomplishments often don’t align exactly with what recruiters understand, making it hard for veterans to show how qualified they really are, but it’s a language issue, not a skills issue.”White Glove Military Talent ProgramPeacock works on Fastport’s White Glove Military Talent Program, which helps transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses find meaningful employment, and helps companies better engage and retain former military talent. It’s available to enlisted service members with just a few years of experience as well as those with decades-long careers. Participants get resume help, career coaching, and interview prep, and matches to companies with military-ready cultures.The program acts as an intermediary between veterans and employers, forging relationships on both sides. “Our approach blends technology and human connection,” Peacock said. “We manage our employer partners and talent pipelines for the military community, and act as their personal concierge so any requests that they need, we connect employers with transition offices at bases located throughout the country.”The military talent ecosystem is unfamiliar to many corporate recruiters, so “we help them understand credentialing and reciprocity within various states as it relates to military training,” Peacock said. “We strategically source for their open roles where they want to dig a little deeper.”The First Six MonthsAccording to Harrison, the first six months of civilian employment are the most critical for both employer and employee. In this time, former service members are most likely to become disenfranchised, lose connections within the military community, and fail to successfully connect with their new role. Many exit the military without a network in the civilian workforce “and it kind of puts them at a disadvantage in today’s job market,” said Peacock. Her husband, who is approaching military retirement, says he’s most worried about not understanding the culture of the civilian workplace.Harrison has heard from veterans who, months into civilian employment, find themselves isolated or realize that the job they accepted was not the job they were promised. They come back to him—and a new match begins. “The relationships you make will matter,” he said.“It all has to do with onboarding set up by the employer,” Peacock said. A focus on cultural integration, mentorship programs, and employee resource groups can make the critical connection between employee and employer. Don’t wait for them to find you: Introduce new hires to those ERGs and mentorship networks during onboarding, and designate a representative to proactively reach out, she says. Then open that ERG as broadly as you can, and welcome people who have a connection to the military. In one ERG Harrison worked with for more than a decade, the group’s strongest leader was a military spouse whose husband had been killed in service. “The more you envelop those people, the more you envelop your entire company and your entire company culture, the more the word will spread, and trust me, it will matter down the road,” Harrison said.An Untapped Talent Pool: Military Spouses As a military spouse herself, Peacock says this group is often lumped in with transitioning with service members and veterans despite having different work histories and skills, not to mention obstacles.“The main unique challenge for a military spouse is frequent relocation,” she said. Military families move every two to four years, roughly, which has created the stigma that employers shouldn’t hire spouses because they’ll simply be packing up before long. “It’s important to recognize that military spouses are not more likely to leave their jobs compared to other employees in the same demographic,” she said, citing data from SHRM. “If an employer can offer remote or portable job opportunities, it is likely that this spouse employee will stay with that company. Oftentimes they don’t want to leave the job, they just have to because of the nature of the beast.”Another common misconception is that military spouses are unqualified or unreliable, evidenced by career gaps or inconsistent career experience. But whether a military spouse is employed while their partner is stationed overseas is often beyond their control. Sometimes jobs just aren’t available. Harrison says he’s known no small number of military spouses who “were very highly educated. They were PhDs and master’s degrees and had important jobs, and because they happened to be part of a military family, and they got relocated to a location, and they just assumed that they’d be able to find a job, doing something, anything, teaching something, and there’s not.”This can even be a problem for military spouses in the U.S. “Everywhere there’s a major installation, the job market is generally saturated,” he said. Retiring service members tend to stay and buy homes, and there just aren’t enough jobs to go around.“You’ll find that a lot of military spouses have started putting ‘military spouse’ in their headline on LinkedIn,” said Peacock. That’s a quick way to crack open this community and begin funneling them into your talent pipeline. More and more, veterans recruiting programs, like Fastport’s White Glove program, are folding in military spouses as well.But the military spouse community is a rich, often overlooked talent pool. Not only do they often have a history of paid work, the tasks of a military spouse are not small. “Take someone who, with 16 days notice, coordinates and arranges the movement of home from one continent to another continent, and puts kids in school. Moves kids, arranges jobs, moves cars. Does all these and does it on their own,” Harrison said. “That’s project management 101, that’s logistics.” If you need someone who can make things happen, look no further.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Fastport, for sponsoring this webinar.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by SDI Productions/iStock)