Learning Through Practice: Redefining Skill Development With Experiential Learning
BY Tabitha Cabrera November 12, 2025According to a recent study, “around 90% of C-suite executives believe their company pays attention to people’s needs when introducing new technology, but only about half (53%) of staff say the same.” Saurav Raj, product marketing leader at Whatfix, shared this disconnect during a From Day One webinar about Learning Through Practice. During the session, Raj shared how experiential learning can cut costs and time within organizations, especially when technology is constantly changing. “ The experience gap matters,” Raj said. When you don’t have a clear and accurate understanding of how your people use technology in their jobs, and what they need and want from those tools, their overall experience at work can suffer.” Digitalization Surges, Connections LagWorldwide software spending is expected to increase by about 10% according to Gartner. Meanwhile, research shows, the worldwide spending on corporate training expected in 2025 is 417 billion dollars. At Whatfix, Saurav Raj leads product marketing (company photo)Raj highlights the balance between investing in technology and investing in training. Most employees use multiple software systems daily, meaning training is required for each application, says Raj. “So innovation can be a boon for us and for our customers, but at the same time, it can be a bane because we are continuously upgrading our software. The learners or the users need to be trained continuously so that they can use these new features,” he said. He emphasized that individuals learn differently, so training cannot be one size fits all.The way we learn also continues to change. Consumption has shifted from passive to on-demand. Services like Uber and Netflix illustrate this new on-demand approach. “The way people learn has changed,” Raj said. This on demand approach to the world around us can be implemented in the training environment with technology. The need for hands-on and experiential learning has never been greater. Why? Rapid technological changes mean that without investing in training, investing in technology is pointless—people simply won’t use it. If employees aren’t engaged, they won’t perform better on the job, no matter the tools they have.Additionally, information needs to be bite sized. “If you are imparting a hands-on learning, a hands-on approach to your learning, your employees are going to retain that knowledge, and they are going to implement that knowledge when they are going live in their working environment,” he said.Reimagining Experiential Learning With Simulations You can’t train every employee the same way, and there need to be solutions that work for everyone. “Experiential learning needs to be scalable, and simulation is one way to do that.” Simulations make your training scalable and open up training for employees to make mistakes. In simulation learning, “your learners engage in real world role-based scenarios, where they practice on real world workflows, where they practice on real world customer conversations, or where they make decisions as they would do in a real world,” Raj said. “And based upon this practice, they get immediate and actionable feedback. They get to learn what has worked and what has not worked.” Raj shared details about Whatfix’s development of Mirror, a Gen AI simulation training platform for customer-facing teams. Mirror has three major capabilities. System Simulation lets you create replica training environments of your applications, providing risk-free process or back-end training for employees. Conversational Role Play allows your customer-facing team to interact with AI avatars for realistic role-playing scenarios. Analytics and Assessment helps evaluate and certify users, determining whether they are ready to use live systems or engage directly with customers, says Raj. In today’s fast-paced tech world, delivering scalable, streamlined experiential learning isn’t just about saving money, it’s about giving employees the time and support they need to thrive amid constant technology updates.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Whatfix, for sponsoring this webinar. Tabitha Cabrera, Esq. is a writer and attorney, who has a series of inclusive children's books, called Spectacular Spectrum Books. (Photo by M.photostock/iStock)
The Global Playbook for AI-Powered Work: How Pacesetters Win Across Borders
BY Christopher O'Keeffe November 11, 2025In today’s global economy, the lines between local teams and international strategy have blurred. Yet many companies still struggle to unify their people, systems, and insights across borders. That’s where the next generation of “pacesetter” organizations are pulling ahead—by using AI not just to automate work, but to integrate it.At From Day One’s October virtual conference, Rebecca Warren, director of talent-centered transformation at Eightfold AI spoke with Kathi Enderes, SVP and global industry analyst at the Josh Bersin Company, sharing insights on how leaders are redefining the architecture of global work. Drawing on Bersin’s multi-year Global Workforce Intelligence Project, Enderes and Warren unpacked how companies can align global strategy with local execution, build “superworker” teams, and use AI as a connective force in a fragmented world.Understanding the Global Workforce Intelligence Project“The big idea behind this was, let’s look at industry by industry,” Enderes said. “What skills globally does this industry have? What skills are rising, what skills are declining, what roles are emerging, what roles are declining, and what organizational solutions are actually prevalent in this industry to solve the biggest business problems?” Enderes posed. The project, developed in collaboration with Eightfold, draws insights from a massive dataset, around 1.5 billion worker profiles, says Warren. From healthcare to financial services, the research revealed a unifying principle among top-performing global companies, what Enderes calls skills velocity. “It means always staying on top of changing skills requirements and then recruiting, retaining, developing these critical skills with speed and at scale,” she said. “The talent pool has become increasingly global. A lot of times you actually can’t find talent in your country, in your location. You have to think about a global perspective as well.”The findings point to a fundamental shift: the best companies are not just digitizing; they are continuously re-skilling—using AI to anticipate change before it hits.Global Strategy, Local ExecutionWhile AI can unify a global strategy, Enderes says that its success depends on cultural nuance and regional adaptation. “I think it’s critically important actually to have a global strategy and to have local implementation,” she said. “Design and strategy globally, and execution and implementation locally.”She pointed to the need for what she called a “glocal” mindset, “balancing the global perspective, the global mindset, the global approach, with, of course, how you execute needs to be local.”Rebecca Warren of Eightfold AI spoke with Kathi Enderes of the Josh Bersin Company during the thought leadership spotlight (photo by From Day One)That duality is especially vital in an era of regulation and complexity. “You need to be aligned with the laws and with the regulations of your country,” Enderes said, “but with the mindset of all marching into the same direction, all using AI, for example, for what purpose, for what end, how we want to use it.”For multinational organizations, this balance between centralized strategy and local flexibility defines not only compliance—but agility.Building Talent Density and “Superworker” TeamsCentral to Bersin’s framework is the concept of talent density, a principle borrowed from Netflix’s “keeper test” approach. “They see their company not as a family, but as sports teams, like high-performing Olympic teams,” said Enderes. Every employee, she says, is evaluated on their ability to elevate the team’s collective performance. But individual skill is only part of the equation. “You can’t just hire high performers,” Warren added. “You’ve got amazing people, and they’re running this way, and somebody else is running that way, but if they’re not complementary, if they don’t work together, that’s a challenge of trying to get the team right.”AI-powered talent intelligence provides the visibility leaders need to identify complementary skills and “move people around to create that high performance,” said Enderes. Employees often have adjacent or underused skills, hidden strengths that can expand their impact across teams and regions. “Every single one of us has these meandering career paths,” she said. “That’s why talent intelligence is so important.”Rewiring the Organization With AIWhen implemented well, AI becomes the infrastructure that unites global strategy, local execution, and people insight. “The biggest advantage, of course, is you can actually solve the business problems,” Enderes said. “Because when you have AI around it, you’ll get better insights, more connected insights—insights that connect actually the business strategy with your HR strategy and your people strategy.”“AI is an accelerator to bring together globally and across functions,” she added. “Not just HR functions, but business functions, the entire organization.”As Warren concluded, the pacesetter companies showcased in the research all share one common trait: agility. “It’s that ability to solve bigger problems, with bigger brains, bigger superworkers, bigger teams,” she said. “AI makes the world even smaller and more manageable, because now it’s easier than ever to get insights from the entire organization and the entire world.”The new global playbook isn’t just about technology—it’s about orchestration. As Enderes put it, “AI makes the world even smaller and more manageable.” But behind the algorithms, the core challenge remains deeply human: how to design systems that amplify talent rather than fragment it.In the “superworker” era, the most successful organizations will be those that think globally, act locally, and use AI not as a replacement for people, but as the connective tissue that helps them thrive together, across time zones, cultures, and borders.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Eightfold AI, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by skynesher/iStock)
The Science of Positive Change: Making HR Initiatives Stick
BY Stephanie Reed November 10, 2025Making HR initiatives stick is a science: behavioral science. With it, organizations can overcome the intention-action gap, the intention to fulfill a goal, but not achieve it because of underlying mental and psychological deterrents. “We think, if we give people the information, they’re going to take it in, they’re going to analyze it consciously, rationally,” said Suzanne Kirkendall, CEO, North America of BVA Nudge Consulting. But that doesn’t happen without effective positive reinforcement. Underlying negative or maladaptive behavioral patterns hinder proactivity and productivity. If organizations want to meet KPI goals, these must be considered when developing initiatives. The company’s methodology integrates behavioral interventions, guiding organizations in achieving sustainable positive behavioral changes in their employees, Kirkendall shared during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference. The Four Key Pillars to Embrace Something NewDuring the session Kirkendall outlined four key pillars that every organization should embrace when taking on major initiatives.The first pillar is to design initiatives with simplicity in mind—fewer links, fewer steps, and clear, easy-to-follow instructions for teams. Even small adjustments can make a big difference. For example, removing just one step from a benefits enrollment process can boost completion rates, while a streamlined platform experience keeps employees more engaged.Suzanne Kirkendall, MPH, SHRM-SCP, is CEO, North America at BVA Nudge Consulting The second pillar is to communicate with meaning. An example of this is in hospitals that reframe custodial work from being monotonous tasks to critical objectives in helping patients see improved employee performance and job satisfaction, she says. Additionally, a more compelling call-to-action highlights the professional benefits of employees completing reviews or a questionnaire, which improves response rates. “This is all about acknowledging your accomplishments. You work hard. You deserve to have that acknowledged. This is about your career growth. That’s exciting, that’s inherently motivating for people.”The third pillar is to harness social proof. Influential messengers such as a manager’s name or signature can boost engagement. Let employees know when others are completing a specific task, and include the number of peers who have finished their reviews in future emails. When employees see their colleagues taking action, they are more likely to do the same.Lastly, the fourth pillar is timeliness. This means delivering information precisely when employees need it and sending reminders at the most effective times, whether by day, week, or around upcoming holidays.For example, a BVA client with a two-week deadline for annual employee reviews designed their emails to drive proactive responses. They placed a prominent red button at the top as a clear call-to-action, kept instructions simple, and made the communication personal and engaging, starting with a subject line crafted to motivate recipients to open the email.“We use personalization, of course, by making sure that their name was in there, pretty straightforward, but also personalization as it related to their journey,” Kirkendall said. Then, using a particular cadence, the client communicated as a leader giving guidance, contrasting the typical cadence of an automated message. The client proceeded by mentioning how many people have already completed the process. This encouraged quicker engagement.Finally, the client was advised to send the information so that employees can take action immediately. That meant avoiding sending reminders on holidays.Why Strategic, Positive Reinforcement is Necessary Behavioral science combines social psychology, organizational psychology, neuroscience, and more to assess human behavior. According to Kirkendall, there are four reasons why science-backed strategic and positive reinforcement are necessary to drive sustainable positive behavioral changes.The first reason is that we’re inherently biased. People operate on autopilot unconsciously to navigate life’s challenges more easily.The second reason is that we make decisions depending on context. How someone phrases a situation or how they’re dressed will provoke different actions and reactions.Third, we’re affected by our emotions. Kirkendall recalls how people who, due to brain injury or illness, experience greater difficulty making decisions because of emotional dysregulation.Lastly, we’re pro-social: we care about others’ opinions and want to be accepted by people we relate to. Therefore, acknowledging these underlying social and psychological factors helps leaders strategize positive reinforcement. This bridges the intention-action gap in completing initiatives. Kirkendall calls this nudging, which is the essential component of the BVA Nudge. “So nudging is all about looking at the moment of decision and saying, ‘How can I shape the context of this moment to make the desired behavior the easiest behavior? And how can I remove friction between the current and desired state?’”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, BVA Nudge Consulting, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
How Embracing Neurodiversity Unlocks Organizational Potential
BY Ade Akin November 06, 2025At From Day One’s Philadelphia conference, Mike Civello, principal, global neurodiversity strategy at RethinkCare, opened his thought leadership spotlight session with: “Hello, I’m Mike Civello. I’m neurodivergent.” Civello stands as proof that neurodivergence isn’t a barrier to leadership. And his experience isn’t unique; a 2024 study found that 32% of senior management, 45% of C-level executives, and 55% of business owners identify as neurodivergent. Companies can no longer afford to ignore this reality. During his session, Civello dismantled outdated views on neurodiversity and made a case for why hiring neurodivergent team members and leaders is essential for retention, innovation, and an organization’s bottom line. He reframes the concept as a widespread aspect of human variation that provides significant organizational value when supported.The Gap in the WorkforceMany companies view neurodiversity primarily through the lens of hiring, focusing on whether and how to include neurodivergent talent in their recruitment efforts. “Around 20 to 30% of your people are neurodivergent” Civello said, citing common diagnoses like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve hired them or not, that’s a third of your population coming and working every day.”Mike Civello of RethinkCare spoke about "Unlocking Your Organization’s Full Potential"Those numbers clash with disability disclosure rates that are typically around 1 to 4%, says Civello. “What’s happening? For a huge group of people, a very small group of people are disclosing. So there’s a big gap.”This gap means that managers are navigating team dynamics without fully understanding the root causes. “The number one reason that neurodivergent talent leaves the workforce is because they have friction with their colleagues and manager, and they’re leaving without even telling you that they were neurodivergent and needed help,” Civello said. On the other hand, the business benefits of neurodivergent talent are undeniable. Civello cites reports from companies like JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft, which have identified neurodivergent talent as showing “exponentially higher rates of productivity, loyalty and innovation” compared to their neurotypical counterparts.It’s clear that supporting neurodiverse talent isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also great for a company’s bottom line. “It is good for your company,” Civello said. “Every organization that has some level of neurodiversity program has exponential returns financially.”Shifting From a Deficit to a Growth ModelThe traditional perception of neurodivergence as a shortcoming has been a significant barrier to progress. “The traditional view is that something like neurodivergence is some sort of personal tragedy. It doesn’t have to be,” Civello said. Instead, he asks managers and leaders to look at culture holistically, asking, “What could be in someone’s way from being their unique, gifted self?”He recommends integrating support for neurodivergent staff into broader, growth-oriented initiatives that benefit everyone, rather than creating stigmatized “neurodiversity programs.” “Why not label it professional resilience and career pathing? Everybody needs it,” Civello said. This approach helps create a culture where all employees have access to the tools they need to thrive, instead of managers trying to diagnose their teams. “I can’t explain to you why I can handle nine things at once and arrive at the conclusion in a meeting long before everybody else,” he shared. “I don’t know why my brain can redesign your entire benefits plan in two minutes, but I can’t get one slide done for the board meeting on time.” For Civello, the solution to turning his neurodivergence into an asset wasn’t just getting therapy for his comorbid anxiety and depression; it was getting “executive function support” for skills like time management. “Once I got that done, I was a really efficient employee,” he added. A Lifespan Approach to SupportCivello emphasizes that neurodiversity is a lifelong attribute, not something that’s temporary. This reality requires organizations to expand corporate support to include the families of employees. “Neurodiversity doesn’t just happen at work; it happens at home,” he said, noting the immense strain on parents, particularly. The U.S. Surgeon General has declared a parental mental health crisis, which is amplified for caregivers of neurodivergent children.He recommends applying the exact growth-oriented positioning to family support. Instead of asking, “Does your child have a disability?” frame resources around “helping your child reach their full potential.” This more positive and inclusive phrasing increases adoption and reduces stigma.Civello highlights ERGs as a valuable resource for companies seeking to support and empower neurodivergent employees. He has seen a trend of parenting and disability ERGs spinning off dedicated neurodiversity groups. These should be leveraged not just for peer support, but as a “sounding board” for the company. “I learned most of what I’ve done today so far just by listening to most people in the field and asking them what went well for you, and what would you do better?” Civello said. The Impending Generational ShiftThe most compelling call to action for companies to change their perspective around neurodivergence is the generational shift underway. “53% of Gen Z identify as neurodivergent,” Civello said, citing statistics from Deloitte’s 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Gen Z, along with Millennials and Gen Alpha, will be 80% of the workforce in the next decade, and their expectations will define the workplace. “They watched it on TikTok, and they have expectations of you, and if you can’t deliver, you’re going to be in a world of hurt,” Civello said. Civello closed out his presentation by pointing out that companies are sitting on vast reservoirs of untapped talent. Organizations can “develop high-performing teams by uncovering some of the most gifted people in your organization that simply are just not optimized,” he said. He recommends creating environments where every employee has the chance to be their unique selves. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, RethinkCare, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Financial Wellness and the Evolution of Care in the Workplace
BY Christopher O'Keeffe November 05, 2025“When there are problems at home, there are problems at work,” said Patrick Manfroni, director of business development and partnerships at Stream, during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference. “Taking that problem into the office or into the workplace is obviously going to have a direct impact on your performance,” he said during the session titled, “Financial Wellness as a Core Benefit.”For decades, employers treated workers’ financial lives as personal territory—a private matter, separate from the office. But as Manfroni says, that separation is vanishing fast. “This is now no longer a nice-to-have perk. This is a must-have,” he said of financial wellness benefits. “It’s addressing [a] structural gap in how employees manage their cash flow every day and every week.”Today’s workplace is defined by shifting expectations, employees seeking not just fair pay but financial stability, access, and care. As companies evolve beyond transactional employment, the relationship between worker and workplace is being redefined around well-being and trust. “The employer is there not just to provide the paycheck,” said Manfroni.An Evolving Standard of WellnessAt its core, Manfroni says, financial wellness is about transforming how pay works, and how it supports people’s lives in real time.“In simplistic form, earned wage access gives employees access to their earned, but not yet paid wages,” he said. “If we’re in the middle of a pay period, today’s Tuesday, say we’re on a bi-weekly pay period, I don’t get paid until this coming Friday. [With earned wage access] I can log into an app and get access and see how much money I’ve earned thus far, and get access to those funds if I need them.”Patrick Manfroni of Stream spoke with Steve Koepp, From Day One co-founder and editor in chief The idea is simple but powerful: replacing rigid pay cycles with flexibility and immediacy. “It is not a loan. These are wages that these people have already earned. It’s a cash-flow solution. It’s not just a financial perk,” he said. That flexibility can have measurable business impact, says Manfroni. “It then increases attendance, retention and productivity. This is a no-cost tool for the employer to offer to their employees.”Upgrading an Antiquated SystemFinancial wellness, as Manfroni describes it, isn’t just about providing emergency cash—it’s about creating sustainable financial health. “It’s like giving somebody medicine, but also providing them with a long-term health care plan for their success,” he said.“At Stream, we not only offer pay, which is the earned wage access component, but we also offer other tools.” These tools include a high yield savings account, budgeting features, and an AI-powered tool where workers can ask financial questions, says Manfroni. In the modern workplace, that kind of support signals a deeper kind of partnership. Employers aren’t just providing income, they’re helping employees use it wisely, build confidence, and recover from financial stress.The Ripple Effect of Relief“We have seen a higher confidence level by the worker when they’re actually able to manage their bills,” Manfroni said. “It’s not only lowering their stress, but it’s also improving their focus and quality of work.”That relief translates into measurable organizational outcomes. “From a turnover perspective, it greatly reduces turnover,” he said. “We’re looking at turnover that’s reduced by around 15 to 25% when financial wellness and earned wage access products are offered.”In his earlier career, Manfroni witnessed the impact firsthand in nursing homes that began offering earned wage access. “We then saw the available shifts being covered, and that was because they were more willing to pick up these shifts, because they could walk out of that day if they wanted to, with access to their wages for that day,” he said. “The coverage was unbelievable.”When employees are less financially burdened, they’re not just showing up, they’re engaged, focused, and connected to their work. “When people are less stressed about their financial position, they come to work happier, they show up consistently, and they’re more engaged,” Manfroni said. “They just have less on their mind to worry about.”Steps Toward Financial InclusionAs industries struggle to attract and retain talent, financial wellness has become a differentiator. “Financial wellness tools and earned wage access specifically has become more of a signal of a progressive employer,” Manfroni said. “Candidates now are asking about this in interviews.”Younger generations, he added, are shaping expectations across the workforce. “For Gen Z and millennials, this is now becoming a baseline expectation, not an exception anymore,” he said. In a labor market defined by volatility and transparency, offering these tools is as much a cultural statement as a financial one. “Employers need to care more about their workers,” Manfroni said. “We need to start showing more care, more financial care, to these individuals, and making sure that we’re supplying them with the appropriate products.”For many employees, financial literacy was never part of their upbringing, it’s a reality that contributes to systemic inequity. “We’re looking at a lot of folks who arguably have not come from households where financial literacy has been ingrained and taught,” Manfroni said. But employers have the opportunity to level the playing field through educational means, he says. As financial wellness moves from trend to expectation, Manfroni predicts a future where earned wage access is as commonplace as direct deposit. “I think it’s just going to be the norm,” he said. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Stream, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
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)
How AI is Transforming the Workforce in Real-Time
BY Jessica Swenson November 03, 2025It’s no secret that AI is dramatically transforming the composition of today’s workforce. White-collar job opportunities for new graduates are disappearing at an alarming rate, and managers are overwhelmed by increased responsibilities as companies respond to new AI tools and practices.“Is AI taking jobs? Our answer would be yes, it is taking jobs. The article that we contributed to in Fortune was based on this theory that it’s happening from the bottom up,” said Alex Cwirko-Godycki, VP of strategy and general manager of market data at Pave. Using real-time data recently featured in Fortune magazine, Cwirko-Godycki discussed current trends and the real impact of AI during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s San Francisco conference.In the last two and a half years, the quantity of entry-level employees aged 21 to 25 at public companies has declined from 15% to under 7%, he said—a reduction of nearly 50%. “The reason we think this is happening is that public companies are actually moving much faster to realize AI efficiencies [and] there is more pressure [for them] to show progress on the use of AI.” Company leaders are inclined to push to demonstrate these efficiencies to meet investor expectations.Alex Cwirko-Godycki, VP, Strategy and General Manager, Market Data at Pave, led the thought leadership spotlight As the average worker age increases, the rapid elimination of entry-level roles like sales development reps, marketing associates, or HR associates during this time raises long-term talent pipeline concerns, says Cwirko-Godycki. The raw numbers show a drop of only one-half of one percent—but in a data set of two million employees, that equates to thousands of jobs. “The question then becomes: if you're not hiring entry-level sales development reps, who is your next account executive?”Along with these changes, middle management has an increasing mandate to do more with less. During this two-and-a-half-year period, managers and directors grew their spans of control by as much as 16%, causing Cwirko-Godycki to raise the question: “What is the limit of an overloaded manager?”“There is research that says most people can only really manage six good interpersonal relationships at any given time,” he said. “So, between your family and your work, you're probably past that number. But if you're managing 12 people at work, there's a very low probability you’re going to do a good job managing all of them,” he said. Changes in Workforce ArchitectureAccording to Cwirko-Godycki, jobs with AI or machine learning (ML) in the title have almost doubled in two years, and he and his team are excited to see how these roles will evolve.An emerging trend as companies experiment with AI is the addition of new positions—like prompt engineers and go-to-market engineers—that bridge AI integration with existing business processes. These roles exist across departments like revenue operations, marketing operations, and sales operations.“These are people being deployed into various business functions because technology is becoming so important [and] now everyone's trying to bring AI into everything,” he said. “So, you need engineers on the ground who understand the business process and can connect the dots between the new technology and what you’re trying to achieve.”There is also debate about whether AI engineers and AI researchers will merge with software engineers in the future, or remain a distinct job family with separate functions and their own compensation model.Compensation Trends for AI RolesWith ample media coverage discussing the impact some of these roles have on company budgets, let’s examine the numbers. AI/ML roles comprise one percent of the over two million workers in Pave’s data set, and AI researchers represent 14% of the AI/ML category. Pave’s salary data shows that, besides extreme outliers, base pay for these roles follows consistent, predictable compression and distribution standards. However, Cwirko-Godycki said that equity pay is “much more widely distributed and extremely right-skewed,” and can vary by as much as 7.8X for the top one percent of AI researchers.While a tiny fraction of the workforce commands these premium salaries, he and his team advise clients: “If you’re worried about things like burn rate and managing your compensation budget, and you’re going to spend a ton of money on this talent, you better be really, really sure that you’re hiring the right person before you break the bank.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Pave, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
From Annual Ritual to Continuous Impact: A Modern Blueprint for Your Employee Survey Strategy
BY Stephanie Reed October 31, 2025The problem with traditional annual engagement surveys, according to Rob Catalano, chief engagement officer and co-founder of WorkTango, is that they are “too infrequent, too isolated, and only [survey] one part of the employee experience.”During a From Day One webinar, Catalano shared that organizations are finding traditional engagement surveys no longer meet the dynamic needs of today’s workforce. This shift requires HR leaders to move beyond static data, foster a culture of continuous listening, and generate actionable insights. He also shared four mindset shifts helping organizations leverage dynamic data from the new surveys.Four Employee Survey and Listening Trends The first trend is the shift to using pulse surveys with continuous and active listening. An active listening model helps organizations conduct deeper analysis on feedback, gather input in advance, develop effective change management strategies, and prioritize employee voice through open-ended discussion, he says. “A lot of organizations are usually starting in that world of, ‘yeah, we do a survey once or twice a year. In some cases, once every three to four years,’” Catalano said. “But the reality is, they understand that that’s not enough data to be agile to navigate through knowing what employees need to be able to get to that success.”Pulse surveys incorporate traditional measurements like engagement or DEI indexes. Then, they use qualitative feedback on programs such as employee recognition. The diagnostics provide comprehensive insight. Employee voice data brings a deeper perspective on such efforts on employee engagement. Leaders then create actionable goals of making better recognition efforts, Catalano says. Active listening also addresses issues that don’t have immediate solutions by providing accountability and vulnerability through open discussions. Shifting to pulse surveys, combining them with annual surveys, and using active listening strategies fuel higher employee engagement, says Catalano. WorkTango’s research shows that 93% of organizations that invest in employee survey software reported positive ROI. Rob Catalano, WorkTango’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, led the webinar (company photo)A second trend is leveraging new technologies. AI and innovative tech can help HR leaders sort and filter through thousands of employee comments, detect bias, and conduct private discussions with employees. Catalano emphasizes that HR must adapt to AI in the workplace because it quickly and efficiently gathers comprehensive data. “It can auto-translate work language. It can ask questions dynamically based on how people are feeling, based on other people in the organization, or how their teams are feeling,” he said. A third trend is the shift toward leader-centered strategies that integrate manager development with employee survey insights. This approach shares feedback directly with managers rather than keeping it siloed within HR, empowering leaders to assess and apply employee data to manage their teams more effectively.Using newly integrated technology, managers can create action plans based on data analysis and employee feedback. “They are your secret weapon when it comes to understanding how employees feel, think, react, and turning that into engagement, retention, and performance,” he said. The fourth and final trend is leveraging data in new ways. With live dashboards and AI, advanced technology can process information faster, more accurately, and in real time while maintaining confidentiality. This creates an opportunity to move from using data in isolation to connecting it directly to business goals, such as mapping employee survey results to innovation, safety, or retention outcomes.Shifting Mindsets to Drive Performance Catalano also shared key mindset shifts that helped the companies he’s worked with achieve stronger performance.One shift is applying consumer principles to talent assessments—providing consistent support and encouraging feedback throughout every stage of an employee’s career. This approach enables employers to use data to build stronger relationships with employees, much like they do with customers.A second shift focuses on inclusive processes: using accessible language, accommodating all reading levels, and engaging employees across every shift to foster a sense of belonging.The third shift is recognizing that progress isn’t linear by identifying life cycle data. Annual surveys alone don’t capture the gradual changes that shape employee experience.Finally, reframing employee data as business data, rather than solely HR data, allows organizations to connect insights directly to business goals. These mindsets help us support the inputs that drive success at every level. “As an HR organization, as a leadership organization, or as a team leader, we can strengthen the factors that lead to success for our teams, our customers, and our shareholders,” he said. Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, WorkTango, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by Iconic Prototype/iStock)
Pregnancy Loss Is One of the Most Overlooked Forms of Grief. It Needs to Be Recognized in the Workplace
BY Lisa Jaffe October 29, 2025When I suffered a miscarriage just 10 weeks into my first pregnancy, I was left to deal with the emotional consequences on my own. I was expected to go right back to work and operate as if nothing had happened. It’s not as if it was a baby, people said. Better it happens now than later, they said. It seemed not just unhelpful, but cruel. An estimated 10% to 30% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Yet most families face that loss in silence, with little acknowledgment from their communities or workplaces.That silence is starting to break. Empathy, a leading technology company transforming how the world plans for and navigates life’s toughest moments, is expanding its Loss Support product to include a program dedicated to pregnancy and infant loss.“Pregnancy and infant loss are deeply personal and often invisible forms of grief,” said Sophie Ruddock, Empathy’s chief operating officer. “It’s one of the most common experiences employees face, yet it remains largely unrecognized in workplace policies.”Empathy’s latest Grief Tax Report (2025) highlights why this issue matters, not just emotionally but organizationally:54% of those experiencing a loss used their own funds to pay for post-loss costs, even if loved ones had plans in place; out-of-pocket expenses per loss average $12,500.92% of people experiencing loss report health consequences such as panic attacks, weight changes, or anxiety.Out-of-pocket costs average $12,500 per loss.Work disruptions can last more than a year, often leading to absenteeism or resignation.78% of employees who suffer a loss don’t feel supported at work.“Our research shows that employees who experience pregnancy loss report similar concerns, including thoughts of leaving and fears about job security,” Ruddock says. “This is not just an emotional crisis; it is a workplace one.”A New Kind of Support“People were using and finding comfort in our Loss Support platform program to cope with pregnancy losses,” Ruddock says. One HR leader who had used the program after an early miscarriage reported to Empathy that the experience “validated my grief and reminded me I wasn’t alone,” she said. Recognizing this need, Empathy set out to create dedicated resources tailored to this experience.The new Pregnancy and Infant Loss program builds on Empathy’s existing infrastructure of care managers, mindfulness tools, and digital resources. After enrolling, employees receive a personalized care plan, daily guidance to help rebuild structure and confidence, support for workplace communication, and one-on-one sessions with trained care managers.Expert resources were developed in partnership with Jessica Zucker, PhD, a leading psychologist specializing in reproductive and maternal mental health. The program also includes dedicated tools for non-carrying partners, a group often overlooked in traditional bereavement support.“Our approach recognizes that pregnancy loss affects everyone involved,” Ruddock said. “Any parent or parent-to-be has imagined a future that suddenly feels taken away. Each deserves care and space to process that loss.”Compassion Meets TechnologyAt Empathy, technology and human care go hand in hand. As Ruddock explains, technological innovation like AI allows Empathy to deliver “deeply personalized care at scale. Our technology helps tailor each care plan based on the user’s experience, stage of recovery, and expressed needs. It also automates administrative tasks. like paperwork reminders, so our team can focus on what matters most: human connection.” AI, she adds, is a “force multiplier.”Beyond Loss: A Broader MissionThis launch is part of Empathy’s broader effort to support people through major life transitions. The company recently introduced LifeVault, which helps families prepare for the future through estate planning, and Leave Support, a partnership with MetLife designed to help employees on short-term leave return to work with confidence.Sophie Ruddock, Empathy’s chief operating officer (company photo)“Loss is universal,” Ruddock said. “Every employee will experience it, yet few companies are truly prepared. Addressing grief is not only compassionate; it is smart business. It builds loyalty, accelerates return-to-work timelines, and helps people feel seen.”For HR leaders, the takeaway is clear: do not wait for a crisis. “Employees remember how they were treated when life was hardest,” Ruddock said. “Those who show care build trust that lasts far beyond recovery.”Empathy continues to expand its specialized care journeys to support people through all of life’s hardest moments. The goal is simple: to make comprehensive care the new baseline for employee well-being. “Grief is inevitable,” she said, “but disruption does not have to be.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Empathy, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Empathy is a leading technology company transforming the way people plan for and navigate life’s toughest moments. Serving more than 45 million policyholders across North America with loss support, Empathy currently partners with eight of the top ten U.S. life insurance carriers and handles one in five life insurance claims in the U.S. beyond the payout. With $162 million in funding from top-tier venture firms including Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Adams Street Partners, and other leading funds, as well as strategic investment from global financial institutions and Empathy Alliance partners, Empathy combines cutting-edge innovation with compassion to provide unparalleled support for bereavement, estate management, legacy planning, and more. Recognized by Apple, Google Play, and Fast Company, Empathy is setting the standard for modern family care and workplace benefits. Learn more at empathy.comLisa Jaffe is a Seattle-based writer who specializes in issues about health, wellness, and the healthcare industry. (Featured image by PeopleImages/iStock by Getty Images)
How AI Innovation Can Unlock a New Era of Benefit Personalization for Employees
BY Stephanie Reed October 23, 2025Recent surveys show that 93% of Gen Z employees use two or more AI tools weekly. Employees use AI to boost productivity, research benefits, strengthen managerial abilities, and build critical leadership skills. In this pivotal digital era, HR professionals have a unique opportunity to shape how AI is applied across industries.“AI is becoming an integral part of your workforce, and it will increasingly be so over the years to come,” said Marthin De Beer, the founder and CEO of BrightPlan during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s San Francisco conference. “So each and every one of us needs a strategy as to how we embrace that and how we implement that,” he said. Beer presented a call-to-action, encouraging HR to “step up” by working with AI to personalize and effectively implement employee development in the session titled, “AI Innovation Unlocks a New Era of Benefit Personalization for Employees.” AI as a People and Tech Opportunity BrightPlan provides organizations with technology, education, and coaching for employee financial wellness. Its revenue quadrupled in 3 years of AI integration, says De Beer. The company uses AI to combine employer compensation and benefit information with individual employees’ financial data. BrightPlan then provides hyper-personalized financial advice. Employees receive advice on spending, budgeting, debt management, investing, retirement planning, estate planning, and more. BrightPlan’s exclusive access to comprehensive data combined with human-driven, empathetic guidance is “key for driving benefits optimization and ensuring the business is making investments in initiatives backed by tangible workforce needs,” De Beer said. The results support the finding that financial wellness is a top benefit concern in the workplace. As employees’ financial wellness scores doubled within 6 months under BrightPlan’s coaching, according to its research, engagement improved by 59% and retention by 30%.HI (human intelligence) and AI (artificial intelligence) must work in tandem. HR leaders play a crucial role in providing training and human oversight to ensure AI output reflects empathy, accuracy, and compliance. “You can literally ask it anything, from ‘can I afford a Ford Mustang’ to ‘my dad just passed away, what should I do? Or what benefits should I select for me?’” As a result, AI coaching can now address about 90% of employee needs, including benefits-related questions.Marthin De Beer, founder and CEO of BrightPlan, led the sessionWhile AI can process static data quickly and efficiently, HR leaders are now being called to the forefront of AI transformation. Their focus will increasingly center on integrating people strategies with technological innovation. Beer notes that AI lacks human social, ethical, and emotional intelligence—making human oversight an essential part of AI training and implementation.“You already own culture, policy, and ethics. You need that for AI. It’s becoming part of your workforce. You already guide how people work. Right now, you can help guide how AI works with them,” he said. The Call-To-ActionModern AI integration undeniably delivers effective, personalized benefits for both clients and employees. It brings continuous innovation that drives productivity and efficiency. As a result, HR’s role is expanding beyond its traditional scope. De Beer emphasizes that a more people-centered approach is essential to enhance personalization, improving both the employee experience and the overall lifecycle. So, how can organizations begin to realize the full potential of this pivotal era in the workforce?First, experiment with AI by taking classes or practicing ChatGPT to create presentations or strategies. The incentive is getting more done than ever before. Next, build a culture of ethical and empowered AI usage. De Beer suggests considering your company’s goals for AI applications and the potential circumstances surrounding them. “Use AI with purpose. Understand the context of what is being asked for when it comes to AI,” he said. Finally, establish clear policies, training, and oversight, covering several crucial aspects. This includes limiting AI hallucinations, using feedback loops to generate code for engineers, producing RFP responses for sales teams, and ensuring HR leaders monitor AI output to provide contextually aware and financially responsible guidance.BrightPlan’s AI coach is reviewed and improved weekly, De Beer says. This ensures that strict guardrails and creativity controls minimize hallucinations. “We've talked about the future of work for a long time. This is the future of work. AI is faster, HI is better, and it will keep getting better as it innovates together.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, BrightPlan, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
Humanizing the Employee Experience in a Time of Increased Systems and Decreased Connection
BY Christopher O'Keeffe October 21, 2025Despite an explosion of HR tools and platforms, most employees still feel lost in their own companies. “How many of you feel like your organization makes it simple for employees to find what they need when they need it?” asked Gavin Paczosa, Head of North America at Humand during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Austin conference. Only a few hands went up.“The way that we work has dramatically evolved,” he said. “But the experience of work—how we engage, connect, and have access to what we need—has not kept up.”Across industries, teams are dispersed across time zones, channels are fragmented, and systems don’t talk to one another. “We’ve added more tools, but not more connection. More systems, but not more clarity,” Paczosa said. “In this mess of systems and logins, it’s easy to forget the most important part of every organization: the people.”Humanizing at ScaleAt the heart of Paczosa’s message is a deceptively simple question: how can companies humanize the employee experience at scale?“To me, humanizing doesn’t mean just adding a wellness app or sending a survey at the end of the month,” he said. “Humanization comes from building systems and cultures where people feel informed, valued, and empowered to act without friction.”That’s why, at Humand, the team focuses on creating what Paczosa calls a digital home for employees. “Because oftentimes we’re not in the office together,” he said. “This has to be a place where people don’t just log in; they belong.” When employees are informed, valued, and empowered, he says, they perform at their best—and stay engaged.Communication, Connection, and CultureTo build that digital home, Paczosa pointed to what he calls the three Cs: communication, connection, and culture.As work becomes increasingly digital, he urged leaders to “meet employees where they actually are,” the spaces where they chat with managers, recognize peers, and collaborate on projects. “When you put engagement first, every HR process follows naturally,” he said. “Policies get read. Training gets completed. Surveys get done on time.”The key isn’t adding yet another platform, but unifying what already exists. Humand’s approach integrates HR systems, learning management tools, and communication channels into one seamless interface. “No workflow should be more than a tap or a click away,” Paczosa said.That simplicity, paired with the use of Humand’s AI assistant, Sami, helps employees find what they need instantly, from pay stubs to compliance training, without hunting through multiple systems, he says. Building for Both Employees and AdminsGavin Paczosa, the Head of North America at Humand, led the thought leadership spotlight The employee experience, Paczosa emphasized, has to work on both ends: for the people using the system and for the HR teams running it. “Many of you have already invested heavily in enterprise systems,” he said. “We’re not going to ask you to rip and replace those. What we do is integrate with them.”The result, he said, is a “win-win”—employees get a single, intuitive access point, while administrators can keep using the tools they already know and trust. The platform’s flexibility allows organizations to turn features on and off as they evolve. “Just like a physical home, your digital home deserves care, attention, and the occasional refresh,” Paczosa said.Paczosa shared a case study of success. When Siemens wanted to create a digital home for its global workforce, Humand helped build a unified system centered on communication, connection, and culture. The results were striking: 98% monthly engagement and 95% workflow completion across a worldwide employee base, he says. With all workflows running through one platform, Siemens’ HR teams could finally see the full picture of the employee experience—“no more guessing, just actionable data,” Paczosa said.The Human Future of WorkFor Paczosa, this evolution is not just technological—it’s deeply human.He compared the workplace to an airport: HR admins are the air traffic controllers, managing complex systems behind the scenes, while employees are the pilots, who need only the essential information in one streamlined dashboard. “It’s not about ripping and replacing your systems,” he said. “It’s about creating the right access point for the people who need it most—your employees.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Humand, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Elevating Employee Voice: Turning Voice into Real Impact
BY Elizabeth Beaupre October 16, 2025Organizations that truly listen to their people are 4.6 times more likely to retain them and enjoy 23% higher workforce productivity, according to research by Explorance. They’re also significantly more likely to unlock breakthrough ideas. Yet here’s the uncomfortable truth: many organizations still struggle to operationalize employee listening. During a From Day One webinar about “Elevating Employee Voice: How High-Performing Organizations Turn Input into Impact,” leaders from Explorance shared candid thoughts on why listening efforts often stall—and how businesses can pair technology with a comprehensive ecosystem of strategies to transform their employees’ voices into a catalyst for lasting, positive change.Why Listening Efforts FailEmployee listening efforts often begin with the best of intentions but falter due to avoidable missteps. One common problem is what’s known as “drive-by sponsorship,” said Shawn Overcast, general manager, enterprise solutions at Explorance. Shawn Overcast, general manager, enterprise solutions, spoke during the webinar (company photo)At the outset, executive teams show enthusiasm and visible support for the listening initiative, only to disengage as competing priorities emerge. This inconsistency leaves employees questioning whether leadership was ever genuinely committed, she says. Some organizations often fall into the 80/20 trap—investing the majority of their time, budget, and energy into survey design and data collection, while leaving little for meaningful follow-through. The result is a trove of insights with no clear path to action.Neglecting to invite employees to the table when solutions are finally discussed is another common misstep, says Overcast. HR and management teams take over the response, sidelining the very people who understand the problems best. And even when data reaches frontline managers, it often arrives in the form of dense dashboards with little guidance. Without support to interpret and act on the results, managers are left feeling overwhelmed, and the listening effort stalls before it can spark meaningful change.Together, these pitfalls turn promising initiatives into missed opportunities. To truly harness employee voice, organizations must stay engaged, close the feedback loop, invest in action, include employees in crafting solutions, and equip managers to lead with insight.The Listening Gap: From Feedback to Follow-ThroughOvercast and colleague Peggy Parskey, principal consultant shared that the difference between high-performing organizations and those that merely track their employees’ sentiment lies in intentionality, leadership, and, perhaps most importantly, trust. They shared eight levers that make employee listening work:Establish Feedback Channels: Carefully evaluate available mechanisms for gathering employee input. You might opt for a mix of structured tools, such as online surveys and more informal methods, like interviews or casual conversations. Manage Data Responsibly: Ensure the tools and platforms you use for data collection respect employee privacy and meet ethical standards.Commit to Transparent Communication: Before launching your listening initiative, inform your employees about the process, clarify its purpose, timelines, and the guardrails you’ve put in place to ensure confidentiality. Bring Your People on the Journey: Invite your people to co-create solutions. You can do this by asking them to interpret feedback and shape action plans.Act on Feedback: Remember, turning feedback into real change requires more than just listening—it demands translating insights into decisive action plans.Engage Your Managers: Managers need to be empowered with the skills and insights to reinforce your organization's listening efforts.Set the Tone from the Top: Embedding a culture of employee listening requires sustained executive-level commitment and strategic ownership.Maintain the Momentum: Establish long-term feedback loops with regular check-ins, continuous improvement, and visible impact tracking.Measuring Maturity: From Emerging to Leading Explorance has developed a maturity model to help businesses assess the maturity of their employee listening capabilities. First, emerging organizations—those just starting to tune in—show early signs of listening, often through basic feedback tools and informal responses, but their efforts are sporadic and largely reactive.As organizations move into the foundational stage, they establish more consistent channels for feedback and begin to act on what they hear. Communication and follow-through become more routine, though execution may still vary across teams, revealing gaps in alignment and accountability.Established organizations take things further. Listening has become a well-structured practice, and leaders are committed and visibly involved. Employee input doesn’t just get acknowledged—it results in tangible action. These companies demonstrate that listening is more than a process; it’s a principle embedded in how they operate.Advanced organizations elevate listening to a strategic capability. They integrate sophisticated feedback mechanisms directly into business planning, using insights to shape priorities, improve performance, and drive outcomes. Listening isn’t just reactive—it’s predictive and intentional.At the top of the model are leading organizations. Here, employee voice is a catalyst for innovation, a driver of strategic decisions, and a cornerstone of culture. Listening is deeply embedded at every level, shaping not just what the organization does, but who it is.Interestingly, most businesses don’t progress in a straight line. “The reality is that for organizations, you may go from crawling to walking and may never get to running, or you may find yourself in a situation where lots of things change and you're back crawling again,” said Parskey. To keep momentum, an effective listening strategy requires infrastructure, follow-through, and involvement of employees at all levels. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Explorance, for sponsoring this webinar. Elizabeth Beaupre is a freelance B2B writer and editor based in Wisconsin.(Photo by FG Trade Latin/iStock)
HR’s Role in the Shift From Performance Evaluation to Performance Enablement
BY Paul Kersey October 15, 2025“At the beginning of the year you get a goal, you meet with your manager, maybe, if you’re lucky, in June, you have a conversation about your own development or personal growth. And at the end of the year, on an employee's favorite day of the year, they get to sit in intense anticipation, anxiously waiting to hear from a manager where they score on a scale,” said Jamie Aitken, VP of HR transformation at Betterworks. Aitken was describing a process that often doesn’t inspire workers, employers, and managers alike–performance evaluations. It’s no wonder companies are looking for alternatives. During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Austin conference, Aitken shared an alternative approach, called performance enablement. She believes that a continuing process of feedback and coaching serves employees and companies better. This steady process encourages mentoring, produces fairer assessments, and opens up opportunities for employee growth.The annual performance meetings can be nerve-racking. These sessions determine the prospects of so many employees. And yet the whole process is rushed, with evaluators tempted to just go through the motions.“Managers didn’t like doing it. [They] felt it was burdensome. Employees certainly didn’t enjoy the experience at all. Leaders don’t feel like it actually moves the needle, but rather, it’s a bit of a check in the box,” said Aitken. A Shift to Performance EnablementJamie Aitken of Betterworks led the session about "The Big Shift to Performance Enablement: HR’s Role in the Age of AI" (photo by Josh Larson for From Day One)Performance enablement is a distinct approach to enhancing worker performance, says Aitken. The focus is less on critiquing and more on coaching. Feedback is more regular and incorporated into everyday office interactions, and credit for progress is more immediate. Making work more meaningful is key. “Frankly, all of us still strive and yearn for meaningful work. We still want the connection to the values and what the organization is trying to achieve. That becomes very important for us to see how we’re contributing to that,” said Aitken. When done right, performance enablement brings that desire for meaning in work to the fore, she says. Overcoming Obstacles to Performance EnablementBut to make performance enablement work, attitudes and habits need to shift throughout the company. HR leaders need to think of the process differently. They no longer own or control the system. Their job is to design a process for goal setting and coaching, but then they should let employees and managers create their own goals and open up spaces for coaching, says Aitken. Instead of chasing managers for evaluation forms, HR works to make the experience work smoothly, so it becomes easy to incorporate goals, tracking, and coaching into the working day. Meanwhile, employees need to become more active–they are no longer passive listeners as their managers offer critiques and kudos. Their role is to contribute ideas for goals and set their own paths for development. The Importance of LeadershipManagers, for their part, cannot simply fill out an evaluation form and be done with it for the rest of the year; they need to give feedback on a more regular basis. They need to think of themselves as coaches, teaching skills and reinforcing high performance in real time. This can be tricky because managers are frequently chosen for technical skills. They want to solve problems quickly, but performance enablement requires more patience and people skills. Coaching may involve letting a team work through a problem rather than stepping in to diagnose and fix it oneself, which takes patience. These are traits that managers can’t always learn overnight, says Aitken. Lasting change starts at the top. C-suite leaders need to model a culture of regular feedback and coaching, setting the tone for performance empowerment rather than handing off employee development to middle managers or HR.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Betterworks, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Paul Kersey is a former attorney and freelance writer based in Chicago, IL. His articles on labor and employment issues have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit News, and other Midwest newspapers.(Photos by Shutter2U/iStock)
Navigating Change and Uncertainty Through the Lens of Organizational DNA
BY Christopher O'Keeffe October 10, 2025Change has become one of the defining challenges for today’s organizations. From succession planning to mergers to periods of rapid growth, today’s leaders are under pressure to steer strategy while supporting their people in environments that never stop shifting. For Miles Overholt, founder and CEO of Strategia Analytics, the starting point for tackling this complexity came decades ago, during his unusual dual career as both therapist and organizational development consultant.During a From Day One webinar, Overholt recalled early moments when the workplace itself seemed to be the root of employee distress. He described working with a couple employed in a copper plating factory whose rotating shifts and exposure to toxic substances had taken a toll on their mental health. What struck him most was that the problem wasn’t inside the people, but in the environment around them. “The problem was the work environment,” he said. “How do you get the best out of your people? How do you connect with your people? How do you make it a healthy work environment?”Dr. David Lopez, SVP of systems research at Strategia Analytics, placed these insights into a broader intellectual lineage. He pointed to the work of psychologist Kurt Lewin, whose framework emphasized the interplay between individuals and their environments. “Kurt Lewin had a very simple idea. He just said, behavior is a function of the person and the environment,” Lopez said during the webinar. “There are things within individuals and there are things outside of individuals, and those two things interact to shape what you do.”For Lopez, Strategia’s approach has been distinctive because it takes this complexity seriously, rather than reducing behavior to individual traits.Making Complexity SimpleManaging complexity, Overholt said, is at the heart of organizational change. Leaders face constant variation across teams, departments, and even within the same workweek.Miles Overholt and Dr. David Lopez of Strategia Analytics spoke during the webinar (photo by From Day One)“People are very complex, and you put them together in organizations, and that’s incredibly complex,” he said. “What organizational change is, is trying to figure out the complexity and make it simple.”Even with the rise of artificial intelligence, he added, the human element remains the most important and most variable factor in organizational life. “People do the work,” Overholt said.Mapping Organizational DNATo make sense of that complexity, Strategia Analytics developed its concept of organizational DNA, a framework that measures four strands: strategy, leadership, culture, and execution—and how well they align. Unlike traditional engagement surveys, the model avoids labeling environments as good or bad, instead focusing on fit.“To be blunt, I think we measure differently,” Overholt said. “Measuring DNA allows us to put it into different buckets and see the different influences that parts of your DNA have, just like an individual, different genes drive different behavior.”Lopez emphasized that the same environment could be productive for one group and counterproductive for another. “Work environments are not, by definition, either good, bad, or indifferent,” he said. “What we look at is whether the skills, knowledge, behavior, mindsets of the employees match the particular environment they happen to be in.”Overholt described how Strategia’s tools convert data into clear roadmaps that help organizations understand where people are and how to guide them. “We think we can make it simple,” he said. “We create road maps of how you operate.”A Case Study in TransitionOverholt pointed to a three-year project with a mid-sized manufacturing company undergoing leadership succession. Employees were anxious, recalling a poorly handled transition 15 years earlier. Strategia’s initial measurements revealed a divided executive team and unclear values.When the incoming CEO stepped in, she prioritized communication, hosting town hall meetings across the company in multiple languages to connect directly with employees. “Town hall meetings were one of her specialties. She implemented and took it and just took it away,” Overholt said. By the third year, he says, the company’s measurement of how well its strategy and execution were linked “soared.”The lesson was that there is no single lever for change. Leaders must work with the tools and strengths they have, whether it’s formal performance management systems or face-to-face communication, says Overholt. HR at the Center of ChangeMuch of this work depends on HR, which both speakers say plays a pivotal, if varied, role. Overholt emphasized the importance of HR leaders who truly know their companies. Strategia’s data consistently show HR as one of the top drivers of change. “With every company we have, the relationship between employees and HR is always there at the center of whatever mischief is going on,” said Lopez. So how can and should HR respond to employees facing existential uncertainty about their jobs? Overholt’s guidance was to resist offering false assurances. “The first thing HR can do is not try to pretend it knows,” he said. “And if you really want to connect with the people, you say, and that’s where we are, too. We’re all in this together. How can we make this better?”Lopez echoed the importance of honesty. “Focus on acknowledging the emotional impact on the employee,” he said. “Don’t try to explain it away.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Strategia Analytics, for sponsoring this webinar.Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.
Managing Teams From Gen Z to Baby Boomers: Tools for Success
BY Ade Akin October 09, 2025Heather Tinsley-Fix, a senior advisor at AARP, was worried that an intern had been in a biking accident when he missed work for an entire week and didn’t call. When he returned to work and she asked him to explain the absence, she quickly found a difference in generational norms. In college, the intern wasn’t obligated to notify professors if he was missing a class, and he thought that’s how things worked in his new workplace. “Once I understood that, I said, ‘Okay, I get that. That makes sense,’” Tinsley-Fix recalled during a From Day One webinar. “It’s about trying to get underneath what the behavior is that's bothering you as a manager,” she said. Such misunderstandings are increasingly common in today’s workplace, where as many as five generations work side by side. During the session, Tinsley-Fix and Megan Gerhardt, Ph.D., founder of Gentelligence, both acknowledged that while age diversity can be a source of friction in the workplace, it can also be a significant competitive advantage. The key is moving beyond stereotypes and learning to harness each person’s unique strengths.The Case for Generational IntelligenceMulti-generational teams are the new normal, and there’s a strong business case for fostering what Gerhardt calls “generational intelligence.” “There’s research that shows that mixed-age teams perform better on complex and creative tasks than teams which are more homogenous in age,” Tinsley-Fix said. “As you add generational diversity to teams, the quality of the decisions goes up.”Kim Quillen of the Chicago Tribune moderated the webinar (photo by From Day One)This “cognitive diversity” introduces a breadth of professional experience and healthy tension that can spark innovation. The challenge in managing multi-generational teams isn’t the differences between team members, but how they’re handled. Left unchecked, these differences can lead to stereotypes and judgment. When managed with intention, they become a catalyst for growth. A Four-Step Framework for More Productive ConversationsGerhardt outlined a four-step framework in her book, Gentelligence: The Revolutionary Approach to Leading an Intergenerational Workforce, to improve collaboration within multi-generational teams. These are: Identify assumptions. The first step required to build an age-diverse team that collaborates well is recognizing our own age-based biases. “We can’t tell you who you are if you tell us what generation you’re in,” Gerhardt said. She recommends pushing back on prejudiced assumptions and identifying areas where colleagues of different ages might have mismatched expectations, such as flexibility, communication, or professionalism. Adjust your lens. Gerhardt encourages people to view generational differences as a form of culture. “We know when we interact with other cultures that they have different languages, they have different approaches, different experiences. Generations have those same wonderful differences.” It’s about being more curious and less judgmental. Build trust. Managers should create psychological safety nets so the ages of team members are never seen as a hindrance. Each team member’s unique lived experiences should be seen as “fascinating and important and complementary.”Expand the pie. The final step is to get team members to embrace mutual learning. “How do we replace ‘us versus them’ with ‘us plus them’?” Gerhardt asked. She says encouraging team members to see different views as alternative approaches that help push the team in the same direction, instead of seeing them as threats.Navigating Workplace Friction: Mental Health and ProfessionalismYounger generations, particularly Gen Z, often have different expectations regarding mental health and professionalism due to coming of age during the pandemic, says Gerhardt. They are more likely to expect mental health support from employees and are more open to conversations about the subject. This can create contention with older workers who were raised in a different era when employers expected them to “leave their problems at the door.” “Neither is right nor wrong,” Gerhardt said. “But those people are working together and trying to navigate a workplace with very different norms.”Similarly, the very definition of the term “professionalism” varies from generation to generation. For example, an older manager might find a team member leaving their phone on the table during a business lunch as rude, while a younger employee thinks it helps them stay connected and responsive. “If you don’t realize the person sitting across the table from you that is going to potentially offer you a job will find this very rude, then you do have a problem, regardless of whether or not it is something you feel is rude,” Gerhardt added. The solution isn’t to dictate one right way, but to have explicit conversations about shared standards and the “why” behind them.Seek the AdvantageGerhardt’s advice for managers looking to improve their ability to manage age-diverse teams is to gain as much experience working with people of all ages. “Once you are able to learn something from someone significantly older or younger that you weren’t able to figure out on your own, you get hungry for more,” Gerhardt said. “That’s how you change your own mindset. That’s how you change the workplace culture that you’re in.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, AARP, for sponsoring this webinar. We’re looking for organizations to partner with AARP’s Generations at Work program to gain early access to the product, insights on bridging generational differences, input on the final design, and custom guidance to strengthen your workforce strategy. Fill out this brief survey if your company would like to be a part of this opportunity or you just want to learn more about the pilot program: https://surveys.fromdayone.co/aarp2025Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by Marco VDM/iStock)
Beyond Automation: How “Superworker” Organizations Are Redefining Productivity With AI
BY Stephanie Reed October 01, 2025“When you look at it, every single industry is changing, right? It doesn’t matter what industry it is. AI has affected every single one,” said Rebecca Warren, director of talent center transformation at Eightfold AI.The prominence of AI in boosting human productivity is stark. But the gap between companies using AI and those mastering it is widening daily. During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s September virtual conference, Warren spoke with Kathi Enderes, SVP of research and global industry at The Josh Bersin Company on AI’s impact on organizations and the workplace transformation following it.The Rise of the SuperworkerOne shift is the rise of the “Superworker,” a term coined by industry analyst and thought leader Josh Bersin. A Superworker is an employee who uses AI to improve their productivity, performance, and creativity. “When I think about using AI in a lot of the things I do, it actually forces me to be more creative,” Warren said.Similarly, Superworker companies create a culture of adaptability where workers learn new skills and reinvent themselves. It involves using AI to make tasks easier, automating tasks to increase scale, integrating processes to enhance productivity, and leveraging autonomy to do more people-oriented work. Enderes says this shift emerged out of understanding that AI and humans can use their unique skills to broaden their reach and get more done. It becomes “all about powering every employee in the organization, from the frontline to mid-level managers all the way to executives, to do 10 times more and to get 10 times more value for the organization,” she said. Rebecca Warren of Eightfold AI spoke with Kathi Enderes of the Josh Bersin Company (photo by From Day One)The Superworker embodies growth, replacing the slashing and burning concept associated with the first wave of AI workplace integration. Enderes advises viewing AI as more than just a cost-cutting solution. Ask yourself, “How can I use these tools that I already have, to do more of the stuff that I like to do, and less of the stuff that I don’t like to do?” she said. Pacesetters in Dynamic OrganizationsWarren and Enderes also spoke about the rise of dynamic organizations that have become pacesetters. These organizations have become high-performing leaders in the market by being “dynamic in design.”Pacesetter organizations focus on skills velocity: honing in on how quickly workers can learn different skills and adapt to newer demands and roles. Essentially, employees adapt to rotating roles, responsibilities, and cross-functional teams. This enhances the organization’s productivity.Previously, organizations were more static in structure and rewards. While dynamic organizations, on the other hand, adopt a “dynamic operating system” featuring a new management and rewards system. This newer system encourages, empowers, and trains employees to create new ideas, learn skills everywhere, and reward employees with strong skills. According to data from the Josh Bersin Company, pacesetters have 31 times higher employee retention and engagement scores and score 20 times higher in workplace productivity.Obstacles to Refining Productivity Organizations that aren’t keeping up with Pacesetters must confront obstacles to change agility. They must shift from a fearful perspective to a curious one, says Enderes. According to their research, 45% of change management programs fail, and 72% are because of people's resistance. Organizations that aren’t keeping up with pacesetters must confront obstacles to change agility. They must shift from a fearful perspective to a curious one, says Enderes. “There’s all these multi-functional, cross-functional, autonomous agents already out there. So it’s not about the technology availability. It’s really a problem of people, culture, organization, and change adoption,” she said. AI training in steps rather than in one giant shift can minimize impact. HR leaders can lead by example with an effective change adoption curve and cultivate an environment where trial-and-error is encouraged. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Eightfold AI, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by da-kuk/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)
Culture by Design: Making Connection and Recognition Real for Frontline Teams
BY Carrie Snider September 29, 2025When was the last time someone genuinely recognized your work—where you felt seen, valued, and reminded that your contributions matter? That question, posed by Dave Nixon, co-founder and CEO of Enablo, set the stage during the From Day One webinar on recognition and connection. Nixon spoke with Heather Halliday, customer success manager at Flip, to explore how leaders can make recognition more real, especially for frontline teams. These deskless workers make up roughly 80% of the global workforce: retail associates, healthcare professionals, hotel staff, bank tellers, and many others who keep businesses running. Yet too often, they feel isolated from leadership and disconnected from the company culture. Recognition isn’t just a nice-to-have for them, it’s essential.While recognizing people is simply the right thing to do, it also has a measurable return on investment, says Nixon. “When people are disengaged, a lot more incidents happen,” he said. “They’re 18% less productive, 50% more safety incidents occur, and turnover costs climb.” Meanwhile, when employees feel valued and heard, the results are dramatic: up to 50% fewer safety incidents, 37% higher productivity, and voluntary turnover rates that improve significantly. As Nixon put it, recognition drives a “20x return on investment.”Focus on Daily RecognitionLeaders have many opportunities to recognize their people, but daily recognition is the foundation, says Nixon. Unlike formal awards or quarterly celebrations, daily recognition builds habits, strengthens trust, and reinforces culture in real time.Dave Nixon, the co-founder and CEO of Enablo, led the webinar (company photo)“It’s less formal. Sometimes there’s no monetary value,” Nixon said. “It’s just the simple things done consistently.” While quarterly or annual awards have their place, it’s the frequent, everyday acknowledgments that make the biggest impact.So how can organizations design recognition programs that actually work—especially for frontline employees? Nixon shared three key design principles:First, make it accessible. Recognition should be available where employees already are. “It needs to be in the flow of work, in the tools they already use,” Nixon said. For frontline workers, that often means mobile access during breaks, when checking shifts, or reviewing pay stubs. Recognition can’t sit in a silo—it needs to live in the everyday workflow.Second, make it visible. From the first day on the job, employees should see recognition in action, linked to company values. “When someone accesses the platform, they should immediately get a sense for the culture and what’s important to the company,” Nixon said.And lastly, make it timely. Recognition loses power if it’s delayed. “The magic happens when you celebrate the moment in real time,” Nixon noted. Frequent, immediate acknowledgment keeps the momentum going.Too often, companies roll out recognition platforms that end up unused, stuck on separate apps or hidden behind clunky systems. “Only a fraction of people log in,” Nixon said. “It just sits out there in a silo.” The key is integration: recognition should be intuitive, seamless, and part of the same space where employees already collaborate.Recognition in Action: Lessons from the FrontlineEffective recognition reinforces culture, builds connection between employees and leadership, and directly impacts retention and safety, says Halliday. In her role, Halliday helps companies bring recognition to life for frontline employees, emphasizing that successful programs should follow the design principles Nixon outlined: accessibility, visibility, and timeliness. Flip’s platform integrates these principles into daily workflows, giving employees space to collaborate, connect, and celebrate one another, whether in chats, channels, or automated “Flip Flows.”Halliday shared two reminders for building recognition programs: don’t overwhelm employees; and don’t overwhelm yourself. Tailor streams so recognition feels relevant, and starts small. To illustrate, Halliday offered a few customer examples.First, a European retail chain with 50,000 employees launched a campaign called Together. Staff wrote recognition notes for colleagues on branded cards, posted them on a breakroom board, then snapped photos to share in Flip’s digital channel. Each shout-out doubled as an entry into a raffle, making recognition both visible and fun, she says. Another example was a company looking to reimagine their ‘Employee of the Month’ initiative. Shout-outs were submitted in a dedicated digital channel, and leadership selected winners based on content and variety of nominations. The result was an inclusive program that celebrated many employees, not just the usual few.Bringing Recognition to LifeNixon demonstrated Flip’s platform, showing how it could be white-labeled for a fictitious “Big Box Co” retailer. Frontline employees could access recognition with just one tap, select a colleague, tie the recognition to a company value, and write a personal message. Branding could be customized with logos, GIFs, or even photos, creating a personalized and engaging experience.Once submitted, recognition appears in a dedicated Shout Outs channel. The recognized employee receives a notification, and coworkers can react with likes, comments, and encouragement. “That’s the dopamine hit we talk about,” Nixon said. “That feel-good moment.”Posts don’t clutter the main news feed, which remains reserved for essential company updates. Instead, they live in their own space, allowing employees to engage without distraction. Leaders can tailor visibility based on team, department, or location, Nixon says. Celebrating MilestonesMilestones are key opportunities to celebrate employees in ways that feel personal and meaningful. Years of service can be spotlighted in dedicated channels, paired with thoughtful gifts like flowers or wine, often presented by a senior leader. “It’s such a simple, straightforward thing,” Halliday noted, “but it makes all the difference in whether someone goes home feeling unseen or celebrated.”Retirement provides another meaningful opportunity. One memorable example: a retiree’s high-visibility work jacket was signed by teammates and shared in a farewell post, turning an everyday item into a cherished keepsake.Recognition can also celebrate personal milestones, including weddings, new homes, or births. Halliday highlighted a unique use case: self-recognition via a Winning Channel. Examples included a colleague securing a visa, someone hosting an art show, and Halliday herself sharing that her dog won a local drag competition.Community celebrations can also be recognized. Halliday described campaigns around Thanksgiving, Pride Month, or International Women’s Day, noting one example where employees were given orchids to mark International Women’s Day. “That’s the kind of recognition that stays with you even after you leave the job,” she said.Embedding Recognition Into CultureRecognition should be embedded into the culture by design. “We’ve got to make it so easy, take away the friction, remove the barriers,” Nixon said. Templates and ready-to-use cards allow leaders to recognize quickly and often, building positive habits that last.Equipping managers and champions to lead by example is equally important. Recognition from the top cascades across teams, and digital tools allow those acknowledgments to happen in the moment, reinforcing the values that matter most.Finally, the real power comes from the data. Every recognition post contributes to a stream of real-time cultural insights that surveys cannot capture. Leaders can see which values resonate, where recognition is thriving, or lagging, and uncover hidden influencers. When combined with operational metrics like turnover, safety, or sales, this cultural data proves what many already know instinctively: recognition drives results.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Enablo, for sponsoring this webinar. Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock)