The Rules Are Being Rewritten: How Bold Leaders Win in the AI Era
BY Ade Akin December 22, 2025The time between technological revolutions has shrunk from 50 years to a couple of decades, and AI is now rewriting what work looks like faster than organizations can adapt. The rapid pace of new technologies that significantly impact how companies operate is creating massive skill gaps that traditional hiring and training methods are ineffective at addressing. Recruiting and learning divisions within organizations are now coming together to improve talent acquisition and address skill gaps from within. Tigran Sloyan, the CEO and co-founder of CodeSignal, urges companies to move beyond passive learning and resume screening, and embrace AI-powered, hands-on learning programs and scalable assessments. “You want to answer the question, ‘What can we do? How can we leverage this, and how can it be good for humanity?’” Sloyan said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s LA conference. The Historical Pace of Change And Why This Time Is DifferentSloyan started his presentation by comparing the speed of technological breakthroughs since the development of the internet to the pace of tech advancement several centuries ago, when the printing press was invented. “It used to take us 50 years to experience a new, dramatic technological shift,” he said. “Forty years ago, we didn’t have web developers. Thirty years ago, we didn’t have cloud engineers. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have mobile engineers.” Each shift created new jobs and skills, but organizations had more time to adapt.Today, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which has only been around for a few years, are transforming workplaces, garnering over 700 million active weekly users. Sloyan says the challenge is leveraging new technologies like AI to “transform how we find, discover, and develop skills that will shape this future.”Closing Skills Gaps With Hands-On, AI-Powered LearningTigran Sloyan, CEO & co-founder of CodeSignal, led the thought leadership spotlight Sloyan introduced CodeSignal as an “AI-native skills intelligence platform” built on the principle that people learn best when performing tasks. “Think about when you learn how to ride a bike, how you learn to drive a car. You get behind the wheel, and you actually try and practice,” he said. The same applies to job skills, but scaling hands-on learning programs has historically been challenging.Sloyan shared the example of Dropbox, which faced considerable AI skill gaps across its workforce. Dropbox’s executives recognized it couldn’t hire its way out of its problem because the skills required were too new to be widely available. The solution was to partner with CodeSignal to build a Gen AI Skills Academy. The academy offers employees three options: AI use lessons for non-technical roles like marketing, AI integration classes for building products using existing tools, and AI creation courses that teach how to build new AI systems. Sloyan says the key to the success of Dropbox’s Gen AI Skills Academy is its practice-based nature. He demonstrated a model where learners first practice prompting an AI model, then are tasked with teaching a simulated coworker named “Nova” how to do it. “Another way you learn well is by teaching other people,” he said.CodeSignal’s AI doesn’t only simulate conversations, it also provides personalized feedback through its “Cosmo” system. “Practice without feedback is not very helpful,” Sloyan said, comparing it to learning to drive a vehicle without an instructor. “With generative AI, we’re making it possible to actually scale this to an entire organization.” Dropbox applied this to thousands of employees, enabling them to learn, practice, and get feedback at scale.How AI Interviewers Are Opening Up the Hiring FunnelSloyan also shared how Coinbase created a more efficient hiring process thanks to CodeSignal’s AI interviewers that scale top-of-funnel recruiter screens to nearly 100% of its candidate pool. Coinbase had previously struggled sorting through a flood of applicants with its limited recruiting team, leading to as many as 95% of job applicants never hearing back from a human.“Almost every candidate that applies actually hears back and actually gets to have a conversation to talk about their skills,” Sloyan said. He showed a demo of “Milo,” an AI interviewer CodeSignal uses in its hiring process, interviewing a candidate.A common concern is that AI interviews might feel impersonal, but Sloyan says candidate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “Candidates are saying, ‘This is one of the best interviews that I’ve actually done,’” he said. The AI can be customized for tone to align with an organization’s legal and brand guidelines. Sloyan says the next step is moving toward AI avatars to create an even more immersive experience. He playfully demonstrated the concept with a candidate interview conducted by an AI avatar of Santa for an “elf” position.A Future Built on Skills, Not Just CredentialsSloyan kept returning to a central theme during his presentation: The future belongs to organizations that can discover and develop new skills proactively. AI is the accelerant, but the solution is timeless; learning by performing tasks reinforced by feedback. It’s the necessary response to a world where new jobs are created by new technologies every decade. “Technology keeps on moving faster and faster. Humans do not,” Sloyan said. “We’re still the same humans, and it’s this technology that needs to help us go through this process faster and be on the winning side of history.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
AI Disrupts Staffing: The Inevitable Transformation
BY Stephanie Reed December 19, 2025AI may have entered HR through efficiency, but it’s staying for something bigger. As tools grow more sophisticated, their role is expanding from automating tasks to shaping how organizations understand people and make hiring decisions. According to John H. Chuang, CEO of Aquent, recruiting is where that shift is becoming most visible.During a live thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Miami conference, Chuang spoke about the advanced capabilities of the latest AI technology and how it will eventually be integrated into every department in an organization. One way recruiting is being revolutionized is by AI processing voluminous data, he says. A recruiter alone is less efficient at digesting information from thousands of potential recruits. “I would argue that human beings are actually sort of not qualified to do the initial stage of sourcing because they cannot absorb data,” Chuang said. “What can absorb data? Computers. What can now understand computers? AI.” Beyond processing information at scale, AI also enables better matches by identifying specialized skills and technical nuances of roles that recruiters themselves may not be deeply familiar with, he says. For example, some clients are seeking very specific roles, such as cardiologists, medical coders, and construction supervisors. “Are you telling me that the average recruiter is going to know all the lingo and all the technical details in all these areas that are completely dispersed? No, they won’t. But AI can. And AI does know these things.”Another way AI is reshaping recruiting is through language. While recruiters may only speak one language, AI can process resumes across many, removing a common barrier to global hiring. Once the technology is properly trained, it also allows recruiting to scale efficiently, helping talent teams identify the best candidates faster. The return on investment is clear: the cost of an additional AI-led search is significantly lower than a human-led one, making large-scale recruiting far more cost-effective, says Chuang. John H. Chuang, CEO of Aquent, led the thought leadership spotlight At Skill & Aquent, Chuang described how the company is moving toward a recruiter-less model, driven by advances in AI. Agentic AI, an evolved form of the technology, acts as an intelligent assistant for processes that require flexibility, context, and real-time decision-making. “Recruiting will be absolutely unrecognizable in three years,” he said. A 2025 Deloitte report highlights how agentic AI is reshaping workplace processes, from understanding context and user intent to supporting scenario planning, forecasting, and risk assessment. It can even make autonomous decisions in areas like economic forecasting and competitive analysis. Chuang recalled that during an Aquent beta testing ahead of a January release, the team tasked agentic AI with finding a customer solution engineer, and the system took action on its own.The team set a goal to find a customer solution engineer. Agentic AI took action on its own.“We didn’t tell it what to do at all.” The technology created a strategy: create two job ads. One defined the technical aspects of the position, while the other highlighted the customer service aspect more. The system ran the job ads, continuously optimizing underperforming postings through four iterations as more matches came in. Once it reached a sufficient pool of candidates, the results were sent to a recruiter. “Guess how much time all the strategy development, the posting of jobs on five job boards, one’s internal database, and four iterations, how long this took? This took eight minutes.”While agentic AI may “supercharge” talent acquisition, Chuang emphasized that people remain essential to the process. Recruiters won’t have to read through too many documents. Instead, they can focus on interviews and negotiation.HR’s new role will be to help transform the organization, emphasizing the partnership between people and technology. Put simply, computers will accomplish what computers are best at, and people will accomplish what people are best at. “AI can do amazing things. And you haven’t even seen anything yet. It’s coming, and it’s going to be more amazing than you’ve ever seen.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Aquent, 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)
Global Hiring and Emerging HR Tech: A New Path to Solving the Talent Shortage
BY Grace Turney December 17, 2025Noelle Pittock, senior director of onboarding and business operations at Remote, remembers the first time her team completed what was previously a six-to-eight-week performance review cycle in just 48 hours. The drastic change wasn’t only about speed; it ultimately saved 7,000 hours of work and achieved 95% completion rates. This breakthrough came from rethinking how technology could actually make work processes smoother instead of more complex.The talent crisis has reached a tipping point. According to research from Remote surveying nearly 4,000 business and HR leaders worldwide, 72% of companies missed a key business goal or deadline in the past year due to talent shortages. These weren’t product failures, they were people problems. Teams simply couldn’t find and onboard the right talent fast enough to meet critical deadlines.“The bottleneck isn’t that great candidates don’t exist. It’s that we’re looking in too narrow a place,” Pittock said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s December virtual conference. Opening Borders, Not Just Job PostingsThe data reveals an intriguing paradox: 74% of HR leaders say finding qualified local talent is more difficult than a year ago, yet 79% would hire more international candidates if it were as easy as hiring domestically. The willingness exists, but the infrastructure just isn’t there.Many companies are currently expanding their geographic reach, says Pittock. Some business leaders expect more than half of their 2026 new hires to come from outside their primary country. This isn’t a fringe strategy anymore; it’s becoming standard practice for businesses struggling with shallow local talent pools.Noelle, a senior director of onboarding & business operations at Remote, led the virtual session (company photo)Remote itself operates as proof of concept. The fully distributed company receives 30,000 to 35,000 applications per month across 90-plus countries, employing nearly 2,000 people without a physical office. “We haven’t faced a talent shortage by taking this globalized strategy,” Pittock said.What’s held companies back isn’t desire, but clarity. Nebulous local regulations and compliance concerns make the risks seemingly outweigh the rewards. Modern HR technology is trying to change that perception through global-first sourcing tools, AI-assisted screening, location-based compensation planning, and legal hiring mechanisms like employer of record services that handle compliance complexity.But finding talent is only half the challenge. HR teams also face an operational crisis managing the sheer volume of work across disconnected platforms. The average HR leader juggles 3.6 tools, with some using four to seven systems just for basic processes. These tools rarely communicate with each other, ultimately multiplying workload instead of reducing it. “When HR teams say they don’t have enough time, that’s not an exaggeration,” Pittock said. “That’s reality.”Automation That Actually Reduces WorkThe most effective teams aren’t just adopting new tools; they’re completely rethinking workflows. Remote’s approach offers a framework: simplify processes before automating them, consolidate platforms to eliminate data silos, and create automated workflows that don’t rely on institutional memory.In hiring, AI screening now helps teams navigate increased application volume. Candidates can use AI to tailor resumes quickly, flooding recruiters with applications. One in five talent acquisition professionals report seeing AI-generated applications with misleading information, says Pittock. Remote’s pilot program used AI to extract skills, summarize resumes, and generate consistent screening questions, allowing recruiters to focus on qualified candidates rather than sorting through virtual piles of paperwork.Onboarding presents another opportunity for automation. Remote onboards talent in over 100 countries by breaking the process into clear workflows with integrated systems, she says. Personal data automatically generates employment agreements in seconds and compliance checks verify identity remotely. By integrating AI directly into workflow platforms, Remote compressed reviews from six weeks to just two days. Managers complete reviews on day one using preliminary information and structured data. Leaders calibrate and finalize decisions on day two. The system achieved 85% employee satisfaction while completing reviews 15 times faster. “AI isn’t replacing judgment,” Pittock said. “It’s supporting it by handling drafting, summarizing, and formatting so managers can focus on substance.”Starting Small and Scaling StrategicallyFor HR teams ready to simplify their workload while increasing productivity, Pittock recommends four immediate steps: remove one manual task you touch often, consolidate data into fewer platforms, pilot global hiring for a single role where widening the search meaningfully improves your candidate pool, and add one lightweight automation ritual like weekly check-in reminders.The key is identifying what matters most to your team. “Take a pulse check with your HR leaders,” Pittock said. “What’s the one most annoying thing they do every day that, if it disappeared overnight, would change how they work? Start there.”These changes require minimal investment but create foundations for sustainable, high-performing organizations that remain people-centric even as they automate. The goal isn’t replacing any of the human elements in HR’s, it’s about freeing professionals to focus on what actually requires their judgment, creativity, and care.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Remote, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photo by dem10/iStock)
The Power of Purpose-Driven HR Technology Decisions
BY Christopher O'Keeffe December 16, 2025The HR technology landscape didn’t arrive at its current complexity overnight. While many of today’s leaders may not have lived through three decades of platform evolution firsthand, the industry has—from the dot-com era’s monolithic systems to Web 2.0’s “all-in-one” platforms, through the SaaS boom that fueled a massive unbundling of tools, and now into an AI-powered cycle of rebundling and automation.During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s November virtual conference, Alex Uhre, enterprise sales manager at Rippling, walked through this history to share how HR leaders can make smarter, purpose-driven technology decisions. “Companies above 1,000 employees on average have 177 SaaS technologies within their organization,” he said. Employees feel that burden acutely: “It creates this position that not only are employees a little bit frustrated about trying to figure out where to go, but we’re also finding that even when you do have these all in one systems for our administrators, they’re finding themselves hamstrung.”Against that backdrop, Uhre outlined a clear, three-pillar framework: buy for the employee experience, choose unification over integration, and adopt new systems with a methodical mindset.How We Got Here: The Four Cycles of HR Technology Uhre opened with a rapid but revealing history lesson.In the dot-com boom, he said, “desktop technology and desktop information and personnel records transitioned into this idea of the HR information systems that we know today.” These early monoliths centralized employee data and automated payroll, replacing paper systems with digital infrastructure.The rise of Web 2.0 expanded this further. “We saw this rise of ‘integrated technologies’ where it wasn’t just about the employee records. We wanted to see technology expand to more of the practical day to day things that HR was taking care of.” Recruitment, onboarding, and performance tools all moved under the umbrella of the “all in one.”Then came SaaS—and a structural shift. “We saw this unbundling of technology,” Uhre said, where organizations adopted “individual point solutions that provided exactly what they needed.” The gain in specialization created an explosion in total platform count.Now the pendulum is swinging again. “AI is here, massive automation is here,” Uhre said. “We can unify systems again. We can rebundle systems to give HR and business professionals holistic systems that provide exactly what they need.”The Three Pillar FrameworkToo often, Uhre said, HR tech is marketed around “what saves HR time.” But he encouraged leaders to rethink the goal altogether: “I’d love to shift this mindset from saving HR time to reducing friction for your employees.”An employee tech journey audit offers a practical starting point. “Talk to all of your individuals within your organization,” he said. “From the first day that they join your company, throughout the life cycle of their employment, where is it that they’re finding inefficiencies, and where can things be better?” And utilization is what determines value. “Utilization is the true test,” he said. Alex Uhre, an enterprise sales manager at Rippling, led the session (company photo)The proliferation of disconnected systems has created what Uhre called the modern “Frankenstack.” “APIs are great. Integrations are fantastic,” he said, “but they’re a bandage for what could be structural redesign.”The cost of this patchwork approach is significant: dual maintenance, data discrepancies, compliance risk, manual work, and fragmented reporting. “Efficiency comes from data talking to itself,” he said, “not having administrators check on APIs or check on integration.”Uhre shared the diagnostic question he urges leaders to ask vendors. First, “If you make a change to an employee, how many systems does that need to touch?” And, “Am I able to report on everything entirely in one single report?”Even at Rippling, the impact of unification is visible. “It should start and stop with as few systems as possible.”The third pillar, he says, rather than roll out new platforms in one sweeping change, Uhre advises leaders to identify a minimum viable rollout. “When you have a unified system, you are actually able to roll out individual pieces over time,” he said. He urged teams to start with high-impact, low-friction improvements: “Maybe it’s expense reporting, maybe it’s PTO requests, things like that.” He also emphasized the importance of measuring everything. “I would really ensure that you are measuring adoption and gathering feedback,” he said. “If it works, promote it. If it doesn’t, let’s fix it before we launch the next module.”Across every stage of the framework, Uhre returned to one theme: clarity.The Way Forward: Purpose-Driven Decisions in an Era of AI and ComplexityAs the industry enters another major inflection point—this time shaped by AI and automation—the lesson from Uhre’s session is clear: companies cannot afford accidental tech stacks.Unification, intentional design, and employee-first thinking are no longer differentiators; they are survival strategies.And while the tools have changed dramatically since the dot-com era, the goal has stayed the same: making work easier, clearer, and more connected for the people at the center of it.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Rippling, 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 Thawatchai Chawong/iStock)
Utilizing AI to Turn Employee Sentiment into a Strategic Advantage
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski December 15, 2025AI’s role has grown far beyond automation, reshaping how organizations generate insight and intelligence. That expansion brings new risks, but also new opportunities to use AI in ways that are ethical, human-centered, and effective.That balance is familiar to Shawn Overcast, general manager of enterprise solutions at Explorance. The global feedback and insights platform operates in more than 50 countries across five continents and has long focused on using AI to surface human potential, not replace it.During a thought leadership spotlight titled, “Responsible AI as the Intelligence Layer: Turning Employee Sentiment Into a Strategic Advantage” at From Day One’s Miami conference, Overcast shared her company’s background with AI and detailed how using this tool can and should be done in a responsible manner.Explorance started doing research and development with the AI space regarding machine learning about eight years ago. “We were at this before AI was cool,” said Overcast. Explorance launched its AI-centric solution, MLY, three years ago. Short for machine learning that answers the question why, the tool was deliberately developed to inform decisions about people as well as the actions taken with them, Overcast says.MLY reflects Explorance’s approach to responsible AI. The employee sentiment analysis tool helps organizations make sense of open-ended feedback, turning employee comments into insight and competitive advantage without losing the human context.Challenges With AI“With great potential comes great risk and great challenge,” said Overcast. Some problems with AI, says Overcast, include bias, transparency, data fragmentation, skill gaps, and privacy. “The data, the algorithms within AI, are only as fair as the data that it’s trained on,” said Overcast. “So, if there is bias in our hiring models, in our promotion data, for example, then the AI algorithm will carry with it inherent bias.”Shawn Overcast, general manager, enterprise solutions at Explorance, led the sessionThe transparency challenge deals with the black box theory, which is the inability to trace back as to why we’re getting the results we are. It’s often hard to trace it back and it’s important to do so to understand the source.Another AI challenge is data fragmentation. “I’ve been at this for a long time and that has always been a problem,” said Overcast. “Working with data silos is a real thing, a real challenge in our organizations, but it also presents a real challenge with being able to integrate all of that together,” Overcast said.Skill gaps also present a problem with AI use. “This is a real challenge for some organizations, because it’s not necessarily what we hired for,” said Overcast. “We hired more for the people aspect of the role, or the process aspect of the role, but not necessarily how to adopt new technology quickly.”Lastly, privacy is an extremely important issue and ultimate challenge at times with AI. Employee information must be protected, and businesses have to be cautious about how the collected data is used. As some of the challenges in contrast to what AI can provide, Overcast assures that these challenges aren’t ones that should cause us to step back, but rather insights that can help us do things with more thought. The 7 Principles of Responsible AIAs the HR team stands at the intersection of innovation and responsibility, it’s important to know how to pursue responsible AI. There are seven principles of responsible AI including the following: fairness and inclusion, transparency and interpretability, accountability and governance, accuracy and decision integrity, privacy and consent, purpose and human intent, and reliability and safety.“AI is not just a technology conversation, it is an ethical conversation, it is a mindset that we need to have, and these help us with quality control about the information we use to make decisions about people,” said Overcast.When pursuing fairness and inclusion, it’s important to make sure that AI amplifies every voice and that all employees are heard equally. Overcast offered an example about a global manufacturer that wanted to do a sentiment analysis across its manufacturing plants across the globe. With use of AI and multi-lingual analysis, it was discovered that a specific work group was having challenges with workload and wellness which was at a Spanish-speaking plant. In the past, if there weren’t Spanish-speaking employees on the main HR team, the data couldn’t be uncovered quickly as it had to be translated and analyzed separately. However, now with AI, it’s the same process regarding all employee comment data and the decisions are now made at the same time.As for transparency and interpretability, the black box problem exists. The data goes in, results come back; however, we don’t understand why and where the recommendation comes from. There are questions that may come up regarding the sentiment, the topic, or the tone. When using AI, it’s important that the recommendation is ultimately traceable back to the source comment. It’s vital to have trust in the data.The last responsible AI topic discussed by Overcast was privacy and consent. It’s vital to protect employee data and there are ways to do so with AI. For example, redaction provides a way to ensure employee data privacy. It’s important to ensure the organization is protected, too. Wherever you are in your AI journey, Overcast advises keeping the seven principles of responsible AI front and center. That includes educating teams on AI’s limitations and recognizing that, while powerful, it is not always accurate. Transparency and human oversight are essential, and responsible AI principles should guide every stage of how the technology is used.Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Beyond Bereavement: A New Approach to Supporting Employees Through Life's Hardest Moments
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi December 09, 2025The length of average bereavement leave is just five-and-a-half days, but the impact of grief goes far beyond a work week. According to research done at Empathy, a platform that offers support for individuals experiencing loss, the effects of grief can last on average 16 months or longer. During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Midtown Manhattan conference, Sophie Ruddock, chief operating officer at Empathy and Nicole DuBois, chief HR officer at Graham Windham spoke about how companies can support employees experiencing loss. When employees feel grief, the negative impacts of it can show up in the forms of reduced productivity, absenteeism, burnout and reliance on other team members to pick up the slack. Data shows that “79% of employees considered quitting their jobs after a major loss, in part because of how their employers supported or didn’t support them,” said Ruddock. She added that 76% feared they would be fired due to their inability to fully bring themselves up to their regular work standards. Graham Windham has partnered with Empathy to provide its employees with bereavement benefits and the company has already seen the positive impact it’s making—boosting employee satisfaction and retention, says DuBois. “When we can talk about what we bring, and that we care about our staff beyond what they produce and what their deliverables are, we actually care about them as humans,” said DuBois. “It makes all the difference from both a retention standpoint and a recruitment standpoint.”Topics about loss and how to support employees through this challenging time can often be taboo, “but it is also one of the most human topics,” said Ruddock. Another collective challenge was the pandemic. When unexpected crises hit, company leaders often retreat behind closed doors to find solutions for their teams. DuBois emphasizes that to truly empower and enable managers, they need that same level of support themselves.At Graham Windham, leaders are provided with training and coaching through an online platform. Any employee has the opportunity to be matched with a professional coach of their choice. This resource can serve as an additional support around navigating burnout, stress, challenging conversations and balancing work and life, says DuBois. “We know that pouring into our leaders is a critical thing for us to do if we're to sustain our workforce,” she said.DuBois says the company’s mission is to keep up with innovation and think “about ways to reinvent.” With that in mind, she discussed the conflicting feelings that currently surround the idea of incorporating artificial intelligence to the workforce. Nicole DuBois, CHRO at Graham Windham, shared the company's experience partnering with Empathy during the session titled, "Beyond Bereavement: A New Approach To Supporting Employees Through Life's Hardest Moments"As employees fear their jobs will be replaced by AI, DuBois assures her teams that rather than pushing people out of their positions, AI can be used to increase efficiency. “Some of these tools can become almost like a thought partner in our work,” she said. Empathy is also exploring the ways that AI can provide its members with faster support and resources for the various processes that are involved after the loss of a loved one, including planning funerals, writing obituaries, closing down personal accounts and more, says Ruddock. “I really think about how [AI] can actually drive a much more personalized experience for someone, and in our case, provide much more personalized guidance for someone that is experiencing loss,” Ruddock said. AI can be used to “help humans do what humans do best, and not replace the human experience,” allowing for people to take the time they need to manage grief rather than filling out complex paperwork. “Care in these moments must be continuous. It’s not conditional. It’s not time bound,” said Ruddock. “That’s where technology, alongside a deeply human strategy, can really complement it, and allow that innovation to be sort of human first, but complemented by technology. Not the other way around.”Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Empathy, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
New Year, New Recruiting: Trends and Tech in 2026 to Optimize Hiring, Screening, and Beyond
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 02, 2025The HR tech industry continues to introduce new innovations to make hiring smarter, faster, and easier. Yet even as the number of applications per position grows, some talent leaders are rethinking how, and how much, they want to rely on this technology alone.During a From Day One webinar on recruiting trends and technology heading into 2026, talent leaders debated the ways in which tech will automate and augment the hiring process, and how to strike the right balance between human and artificial intelligence. They agreed on this: AI is here to stay, but so is the human touch. What Is Responsible AI?For Kim Stevens, director of talent acquisition at recruiting platform Employ, responsible AI can be defined simply: “It’s technology that supports people. It doesn’t replace them.” In practice, that means AI never overrides human judgment, and a person always makes the final call. It also means the technology can explain itself. When Employ’s AI screening tool flags standout candidates, it provides a clear rationale. This information helps keep the company audit-ready, a legal necessity–and some argue, a moral one.Mike Rockwell, VP of account management at Verified Fist, which conducts employee background checks, added that responsibility also includes security. “If you think about the most popular AI tools people are using, like ChatGPT, if you put something in there, everyone has it,” he said. Sensitive hiring information can’t be treated casually. Employers need to ensure the tools they adopt have the infrastructure to keep candidate data protected.Transparency with candidates is part of responsible AI use. If a company is relying on AI tools for recruiting, they should be upfront about it, Rockwell says. Job seekers who feel misled or entirely cut off from real human interaction aren’t likely to walk away with a positive view of the employer.Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the session (photo by From Day One)Erica Wallace, senior talent acquisition manager at HR management software BambooHR, says that some organizations still struggle to formalize internal guidelines. “We can’t say people are breaking the rules if we haven’t established what those rules are,” she said. At BambooHR, guardrails are built directly into internal tools. Even if a recruiter tries to ask the AI who they should hire, the system is designed to decline.Clarity also extends to the candidate experience. Some job seekers assume recruiters haven’t looked at resumes in years, Wallace joked. To counter that perception, her team tells candidates upfront if AI will be used in the interview process and gives them the option to opt out. Every AI-generated decision, from whether to advance a resume to the next round to any ranking of applicants, is still audited by a human.The panelists agreed that it’s always worth questioning whether technology is saving time or quietly creating more work. “That’s something we’re asking all the time,” said Wallace. Her rule of thumb: AI should only be introduced to solve a clearly named problem. Too many vendors, she said, are inventing products for problems that they don’t face. Adopting tech for tech’s sake is a reliable way to burn hours, not reduce them.Some tasks require a combination of the human touch and tech power. Fraud prevention, for instance, has pushed BambooHR back toward more in-person interviews to verify a candidate’s identity. Employ has also increased the amount of screening done by human recruiters. And Stevens cautioned against “over-engineering” the process by letting AI handle too much candidate messaging, especially deeper in the funnel where a personal touch matters most.What Employers Should Focus on in 2026As hiring teams plan for the new year, Stevens encourages leaders to think about candidate communication as a baseline requirement. With so many applicants across industries, it’s common for job seekers to hear nothing or receive only canned responses. “It is our responsibility as humans to treat other humans as such,” she said. AI can help clear the noise and reduce administrative work, but it shouldn’t replace meaningful interaction.That means reinvesting time in the humans doing the hiring. Spend more time with your recruiters, Stevens says. Help them become better interviewers, better communicators, and more empathetic guides in a challenging job market. AI can accelerate workflows, but it can’t build trust or make someone feel valued.Technology should enhance the human element, not erode it, panelists agreed. “We have an obligation to try the best we can to remain human and keep that human element, even with the advancements in technology and AI,” said Stevens. “One way to differentiate is to lead with kindness and empathy in everything you do,” Rockwell said. “There’s someone on the other end that’s trying to get a job because they need to pay bills, they need to feed their kids, they need to be sitting in a seat so they have a career. It’s really easy to forget about that when everything’s happening through a computer.”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 Take Production Studios/Shutterstock)
Personalizing Onboarding at Scale With Hands-On, Continuous Learning
BY Tabitha Cabrera December 01, 2025As organizations grow and adopt new technology, delivering onboarding that is both personalized and scalable has become increasingly challenging. Whatfix aims to solve that challenge by helping companies get more value from their digital tools throughout the entire application life cycle, supported by Gen AI. Its product suite includes a digital adoption platform, simulated application environments for hands-on training, and no-code application analytics.“How do we actually get our people to use the technology we invest in, especially in an age of constant updates, new tools and now with the explosion of AI?” asks Sunil Kumar, product marketing specialist at Whatfix. Kumar spoke during a From Day One webinar about “Personalizing Onboarding at Scale With Hands-On, Continuous Learning.”The company has been focused on this challenge since its founding in 2014, and it’s even more relevant in the age of AI. “AI is adding complexity for users rather than reducing it, because it’s centered on the application instead of the user,” said Kumar. Relationships cannot be built with the user if their first experience is one of friction, confusion and complexity. Even after training, many workers struggle to integrate new technology into their daily workforce, Kumar says. Users find it hard to seek help when the poor knowledge retention sets in. “They pause, they search, they ask around, and that’s a direct loss and productivity, not just from themselves, but even the person that they are asking that assistant from,” Kumar said. Getting the Most Out of TrainingSunil Kumar, a strategic product marketing leader at Whatfix, led the webinar (company photo)Kumar emphasized three essentials. First, organizations should leverage L&D technology to enable learning in the flow of work, creating experiences that give employees instant access to the information they need.Second, they should prioritize upskilling and reskilling to bridge skill gaps and improve agility, rather than treating training as a simple completion exercise. And third, they should embrace continuous learning by moving away from one-and-done events and adopting microlearning and ongoing reinforcement to strengthen knowledge retention. “When you execute this strategy, the user is truly at the center,” Kumar said. Restructuring the Onboarding ProcessOne company was able, by using Whatfix, to reduce 19 learning modules to one onboarding course resulting in a 95% automation so that delivery teams could now focus on selling rather than doing manual work, Kumar says. This was done by creating interactive on-demand training in the flow of work, and they were able to create personalized assistance that was specific to the users. Additionally, this client had a global team spread across Europe and the U.S., and they implemented language translation to eliminate the need for manual translation, says Kumar. By implementing these strategies you “create a habit and kind of a rhythm, and it makes work more satisfying when one has the right tools. If you don’t have the tools, it can be emotionally frustrating,” he said. A core value at Whatfix is the importance of userization, the idea of making technology intuitive for users rather than expecting users to become tech savvy.It’s important for companies to keep up with technology, but by making it user friendly, employees face a shorter learning curve during training. Whatfix addresses this challenge by providing technology designed to be intuitive and user savvy, Kumar says. 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 metamorworks/Shutterstock)
Hiring Reimagined: Driving Trust and Compliance in the Age of AI
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza December 01, 2025Companies are increasingly feeling a kind of FOMO (that is, fear of missing out) when it comes to artificial intelligence in hiring, says Adam Vassar, head of talent science and learning design at CodeSignal, the AI-driven skills assessment platform. Just six months ago, many employers were still taking a wait-and-see approach to AI adoption, and some were playing defense against job seekers who were using AI to complete assessments and interviews.Not anymore. Vassar says his clients are asking to pilot new programs. “They’re less afraid about being the first one to make a mistake, and more concerned about the fear of missing out and being left behind,” he said. “It’s been exciting to implement these products, see what problems we can solve, and get real data behind it. The possibilities are limitless.”Vassar joined California-based employment attorney Heather Bussing for a From Day One webinar about fostering trust and ensuring compliance in the age of AI. Together, they outlined how the technology is being deployed, and the risks employers should be aware of. Artificial Intelligence Enters the Recruiting Workflow Companies are deploying AI at three key points in the hiring process, says Vassar.First, top-of-funnel screening. Recruiters are overwhelmed by hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of applications per role and are automating early phone-screen interviews to manage the largest end of the funnel. Second are skills simulations. Companies are building high-fidelity simulations to test on-the-job abilities, giving hiring managers stronger signals about candidate fit.Adam Vassar, head of talent science & learning design at CodeSignal, spoke with moderator Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza during the webinar (company photo)And finally: interview training. AI is being used to train human interviewers by enforcing consistent, structured practices. “We’ve been teaching humans for years,” Vassar said. “Now we’re prompting AI to follow those rules–and they’re much better at it.” And together, they’re getting pretty good.Vassar is adamant that none of this is designed to, nor could it, replace recruiters. Rather, it gives recruiters a team of AIs they can delegate to, freeing recruiters for the higher-order work of decision-making, judgment, and relationship-building. Recruiters are overworked and under-resourced. New tools help them move faster and potentially improve hiring quality.The Legal Questions, and What MattersMany employers still hesitate to adopt AI because they worry about legal exposure. But the risks aren’t new, Bussing says. They’re the same ones that apply to humans: bias and discrimination.“All the data used to train these systems is based on what humans have done, and it is going to be biased too,” she said. “We just need to keep holding AI to the same high standard.”That means employers must regularly audit hiring outcomes–job offers, promotions, and retention rates–through a human and an AI lens. Do your outcomes reflect your applicant pool? Are certain groups over- or under-represented? Some jurisdictions, like New York City, require regular audits; Illinois requires notifying candidates when AI is used; Maryland requires notice and consent before using video analysis.But disclosure requirements have limitations, and employers should be aware, lest they consider it a box-checking exercise with no impact to the candidate. “If you look at the power dynamics in hiring, it’s not a real choice,” Bussing said. A candidate can refuse AI screening, but that may mean giving up the chance at the job.Ensuring Fairness With AI in RecruitmentEmployers can take steps to create more equitable processes. Asking for diverse candidate slates is one step, and assembling diverse interview panels is another. “We are naturally designed to prefer people who look like us and feel like us,” Bussing said. If employers want better diversity, or simply a more diverse skill set, they need recruiters and hiring managers who know how to look for it. Beyond legal compliance, Vassar added, there’s a moral obligation.In this spirit, CodeSignal has adopted its own rigorous fairness standards regardless of jurisdiction. To test itself, the company asks candidates to voluntarily disclose demographic data so it can evaluate outcomes by gender and other factors. “We want that data. We starve for that data,” Vassar said.CodeSignal created its own version of the “Pepsi Challenge”: a blind comparison of AI interview outcomes versus human interview outcomes using the same rubric. Vassar expected wide gaps. “But we found alignment,” said Vassar. In some cases, the overlap between humans and AI was about 85%. This is a good sign, he says.“Humans still need to be in the loop,” Bussing said. “And we have to call out the reality of the situation, not pretend we can come up with a magic formula, and presto: change.” The future of hiring will hinge on disciplined oversight: humans checking the machines, machines checking the humans, and both held to the same rigorous standards. The goal isn’t to make hiring perfect, but to make it fairer and more consistent. A better outcome for both employer and candidate.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, 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 SmileStudioAP/iStock)
From 8 Weeks to 48 Hours: Reimagining Performance Reviews for Real-Time Impact
BY Stephanie Reed November 25, 2025The standard performance review cycle is an exhaustive process of manual writing, calibration, and the collection of outdated feedback over a drawn-out 6-8 week period. Disillusioned with the process, people leaders at Remote identified its main obstacles: process bottlenecks, a feedback disconnect, and a fragmented process. The company went on to develop a quicker and more effective process: a 48-hour performance cycle. Madeline Grecek, director of global people enablement at Remote shared insights on the innovative process during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s November virtual conference. She shared how new technology can refine or transform traditional HR strategies and encourage more holistic organizational collaboration.From 8 Weeks to 48 HoursThe traditional performance cycle is flawed despite painstaking effort: there are blind spots, manual writing takes up too much of a manager’s time, and data tends to be fragmented, says Grecek. Madeline Grecek, director of global people enablement at Remote, led the session (company photo)Remote now runs a performance cycle in just 48 hours. The first day is for reviews and promotion requests; the second is for calibrations that lock in promotion decisions. A combination of the company’s AI-powered tool called Perform, monthly Slack reviews, and an HRIS platform that aligns company and culture goals created this substantial shift in time management. According to Grecek, moving to continuous reviews is easier than it sounds since monthly snapshots build on time already being spent. “So take one of your one-on-ones. If you have weekly ones, you have four a month. If you have two, you have one a month that you can reinvest into a performance conversation, which you should be doing regularly anyway,” she said. By the end of 6 months, organizations will have saved time and produced more accurate reviews.At Remote, 95% of employees completed their reviews in one day, says Grecek. This is significant, because effective performance reviews boost employee engagement and productivity. “We saved over 7,000 hours by doing this. It was unbelievable. This is the future of performance management,” she said. The Future of Performance ManagementThe 48-hour performance cycle shifts from the traditional annual review cycle. It is a more systematic process with continuous feedback, real-time insights, and data-driven decision-making. “We wanted it to be a data-driven decision mechanism and an engine that could actually help us understand at any moment in time where our organization was in terms of performance health,” Grecek said. Monthly snapshots record ongoing progress, continuous feedback provides richer context, AI facilitates insight-led reviews, real-time performance insights reveal trends, and unified data contribute to a seamless experience. The results are comprehensive and aligned. Streamlined workflows facilitate low-effort continuous engagement, real-time pulses hone in on top performers and underperformers to foster proactive intervention, and transparency helps employees always know their progress. A real-time performance engine integrating AI consolidates and corroborates monthly data points and traces the progress of all employees within an organization. It also uncovers trends in data that may be missed with manual data analysis. Managers can then choose what data is relevant and critical in reviews, says Grecek. “You can mitigate performance issues earlier. You don't need to wait until performance time. And you can imagine that that does translate into cost savings for a business.” Managers can then predict and forecast promotions earlier and stage early interventions when performance is at risk. “We have close to 1,900 employees. We are across 90 plus countries. We are fully remote and we are asynchronous. So you can imagine, this is a lot to undertake, and I feel like, if we can do it in our organization, any organization can do it.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Remote, 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 BartekSzewczyk/iStock)
A CHRO’s Playbook for Overcoming Tensions Lurking in the Workplace
BY Paul Kersey November 19, 2025An employee cries in the car on the way home, overwhelmed by the fear of losing their job. Another worries about bringing workplace stress into family life. Across organizations, HR professionals and managers are noticing a clear drop in morale—one that is taking a tangible toll on their teams.“Employees and employers alike are disengaging, retreating into what researchers call Cold Work, a culture of quiet tension, mistrust and emotional fatigue,” said Steve Koepp, co-founder of From Day One and moderator of a webinar titled, “A CHRO’s Playbook for Overcoming Tensions Lurking in the Workplace.”There are many issues that are tied up in the trend, among them conflicts between flexibility and accountability, complications from the Covid lockdowns as workers return to the office, and concerns about the use of artificial intelligence. But the overarching themes are distrust and alienation.As Matt Dietly, employee experience lead at WongDoody, describes it, subtle, hidden tensions are driving managers and employees apart. They rarely break out into open confrontation, but “it feels like employees and employers are freezing each other out, clinging to survival, sort of waiting for the other side to blink, and it’s giving us so many Cold War vibes that we’ve christened the moment Cold Work,” he said. Employers and employees have always had conflicting interests, Gunny Scarfo, co-founder of Nonfiction Research, observes. Those conflicts have emerged in many different ways: unionization in the early 20th century, stagflation and wages in the 1970s, and outsourcing 20 to 30 years ago. But this time the conflict is less connected to a specific grievance. It’s more general: “they don’t care, so I don’t care,” Scarfo said. Leaders spoke about "A CHRO’s Playbook for Overcoming Tensions Lurking in the Workplace" (photo by From Day One)This mindset is pretty widespread: a Nonfiction Research poll of workers and managers shows that 44% agree that “both are more focused on trying to survive individually than trying to aspire,” said Scarfo. Cold Work manifests itself in many ways. From the financial tech employee who says, ‘I’ve hardly spoken with my boss in the last year,’ to the manager who told his team ‘good news, no layoffs this year’ only to cut staff later on. But they all speak to the absence of camaraderie between managers and employees. In many instances, work has become transactional, we’re not necessarily on the same team anymore.Root Causes and Presenting IssuesIn this atmosphere of mutual distrust, there are a few presenting issues, the speakers shared. From frequent changes in technology and tools to ongoing debates over where work gets done, the workplace is experiencing heightened stress, uncertainty, and a growing disconnect between employees and management.Companies can mandate a return to the office, but if they do “the workplace must deliver value, and that office experience must be seamless, so the return to work should be intuitive, frictionless, motivating. And that’s the responsibility of the employer,” said Joe Duffy, senior business development manager, EMEA at WongDoody.Further, there is a tension between flexibility and accountability. Workers want the freedom to work in a way that makes sense for them, while employers prefer predictability and consistency, says Duffy. But micromanagement leads workers to believe that they are not valued or trusted. Employers often “tend to think of a request for flexibility as some sort of directive to do less work, to be less productive,” said Tarik West, SVP of people at Blue Acorn iCi.An End to Cold WorkRigid, inflexible work drains productivity and eats into profits. Focus groups and anonymous feedback systems can help pinpoint problem areas. It’s worth exploring creative ways to balance flexibility with accountability—they don’t have to be at odds. Even small gestures, like allowing an afternoon off during the week in exchange for making up time at home over the weekend, can build goodwill.But attitude is more important than any particular program. The key is to restore trust and confidence, and the only way to do that is with transparency. Dealing with things head-on is best over the long run, even if nothing can be done to address a worker's objections. “There will always be fixed points in the business, things that we can’t do, and you can’t be afraid to share bad news,” said West. After all, the issue is really trust above all else, and the best way to regain it is to be honest and open. With frank communication and a little flexibility distrust should abate, putting workers and managers back on the same side.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, WongDoody, for sponsoring this webinar. Paul Kersey is a former attorney and freelance writer based in Chicago, IL.(Photo by Prostock-Studio/iStock)
Beyond ‘Thank You’: How Recognizing Small Wins Transforms Culture and Engagement
BY Katie Chambers November 18, 2025“Has anyone ever been visited by the Sunday scaries?” asked Brie Harvey, head of market research for Achievers Workforce Institute. Yes, indeed, responded many in her audience. Many workers feel burned out, overworked, and underappreciated. Fortunately, employers have an opportunity to transform their culture through impactful employee-rewards strategy, Harvey said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Boston conference. Despite employers spending nearly $200 billion annually on rewards and recognition, less than half of employees feel valued at work. Harvey shared insights from the Achievers’ 2025 State of Recognition Report, exploring the evolving landscape of employee rewards, and uncovered the most common reasons why many well-intended investments in traditional rewards programs fall flat and fail to drive cultural and behavioral outcomes.Harvey’s team conducts primary research around workforce trends and how organizations can build people centric high performing cultures. Employees in today’s market tend to move jobs often, Harvey says, joking that her own impending 10-year work anniversary is “the modern equivalent of 30.” Keeping employees engaged and valued is key to keeping them. “When employees feel appreciated for their unique contributions, it’s transformative, not just for the business, but for the overall quality of people’s lives,” Harvey said. Achievers Workforce Institute’s study found that employees who feel valued are nine times more likely to feel a sense of belonging, six times more likely to envision a long-term future with their company, and three times more likely to be engaged.Recognizing employees is the simplest way to improve employee engagement. While four out of 10 HR leaders claim that recognition has impacted strategic outcomes, Harvey says, 77% of employees still don’t feel meaningfully appreciated, even those who work at an organization with formal recognition programs. Harvey and her team have developed a checklist of qualities of the most impactful recognition programs: High recognition quality + quantityMeasure business impact strategicallyProvide personalized rewards at scaleStrong executive buy-in and participation Continuous education and promotionLeader and manager empowerment Designate program championsWidespread access“When things fall flat, which sometimes they do, we can pretty much always trace it back to missed opportunities from this list,” Harvey said.High Recognition Quality and QuantityHarvey emphasizes the importance in leaders understanding the difference between praise and recognition. “Praise is a vague pat on the back that doesn’t leave people with an understanding of what they did that was good and literally no one wants more praise…not even Gen Z! Recognition, on the other hand, should contain detailed information about exactly what a person did and why that behavior matters to the bigger picture,” Harvey said. “When employees say they want more feedback, most of the time, they mean they want more clarity about whether the work they’re doing is correct and matters on some level.”Brie Harvey, head of market research for Achievers Workforce Institute, Achievers, led the thought leadership spotlight on effective recognition Having a sense of progress fuels motivation and feelings of pride, joy, and confidence. “Recognition shouldn’t be reserved for big milestones and outcomes. It should be about noticing meaningful effort and celebrating the small wins that lead to big outcomes,” she said. “Specificity is key.” In terms of quantity, “nothing in life works without consistent effort over time,” Harvey said, recognition included. Achievers found that recognition must be received at least monthly to be impactful. To reach optimal frequency, Harvey suggests encouraging peer-to-peer recognition, promoting meaningful non-monetary recognition, and fostering a rewards agnostic culture. “Leaders and managers can’t do it alone. Organizations have to enlist the help of frontline employees to call out the good work they see being done around them.” And the numbers don’t lie: Employees who receive monthly peer recognition are twice as likely to feel a sense of belonging, and engagement increases by 43% when employees receive just one non-monetary recognition per month, says Harvey. While pay raises are important, 75% of employees say they would pick feeling valued over a bump in compensation.Meaningful Rewards Lead to Positive Business and Personal Impact Achievers’ own rewards program is a prime example of meaningful rewards, says Harvey. In addition to frequent recognition, the company provides points for new hire referrals, completing wellness challenges, and participating in training and development, then allows employees to spend their points, often worth thousands of dollars when accrued, in a digital catalogue featuring a myriad of products.Employees are empowered to choose whatever reward is uniquely meaningful to them. For example, Harvey once used her points to cover the cost of her hair and makeup, dress alterations, jewelry, additional attire, and photographer at her wedding. She shares that another worker used the program to adopt a French Bulldog. In other words, a reward should feel like a reward to you. Achievers’ research shows that employees with expansive rewards options are 70% more likely to recommend their employer as a great place to work, 75% more likely to feel productive, and 120% more likely to feel a strong sense of belonging at their organization. The rewards are the “delivery mechanism,” Harvey says, for a culture of appreciation. Along the way, it’s important to keep tabs and measure the impact of your rewards program to gauge its effectiveness and adjust as needed. “How you measure success should evolve along with your business needs and priorities,” Harvey said. Once a rewards program is ingrained in your culture, she says, you can start to home in on how it’s impacting business outcomes.Harvey highlights two tips for measuring the impact of recognition: isolating variables to move beyond simple correlations and focusing on metrics that matter to stakeholders beyond HR.These factors are crucial to attaining stakeholder support and future budget for rewards. “Mislabeling the tool of recognition as a nice-to-have vitamin instead of a performance-enhancing steroid is enormously costly to not just the bottom line, but overall employee well-being,” Harvey said. To demonstrate the potential highly personal impact of rewards on employee well-being, Harvey shares that she also used her own company rewards points to fund her final vacation and time spent with her late husband, who passed away from glioblastoma. “Shortly after my husband’s first surgery, he insisted on trying to find me the perfect bike upgrade so we could pack in as many adventures as we could for as long as we could. I used my points to get a bike, and we were able to log hundreds of miles all over California before our time together had to come to an end,” Harvey said. “Every time I see this bike, I think about not just my husband’s resilience, but how grateful I am to work at a place where I feel so valued and meaningfully rewarded.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Achievers, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Students Feel Ready for the Workplace. Managers See a Gap. What Now?
BY Kristen Kwiatkowski November 17, 2025How prepared are students really for the post-graduate job market? Nearly 98% of students feel confident in their professional communication and 85% feel they’re ready to learn new tools on the job; however, 60% of employers have fired a Gen Z employee, according to a recent study.“Clearly there’s a disconnect between the actual skill-readiness and the perceived skill-readiness,” said Stéphanie Durand, VP of strategic partnerships at CodeSignal, a skills assessment and AI-powered learning tool company. Durand shared insights on this solvable disconnect during a thought leadership spotlight titled, “Students Feel Ready. Managers Disagree. What Now?” at From Day One’s Midtown conference. New innovations that occur daily increase pressure on candidates to have the right job skills. At the same time, employers may rely on traditional hiring methods, such as CVs and the applicant’s school, rather than focusing on actual skills. “This career readiness gap, as I like to call it, has a real impact,” said Durand.Especially amid advancements in AI and other workplace shifts, many entry-level hires feel unprepared, according to recent research. “You can imagine the type of pressure it causes from a performance perspective,” said Durand. The data shows it’s more around soft skills than technical skills, she says. “We keep talking about technical skills evolving every day and AI, but soft skills are actually a real gap.”Another impact of the career readiness gap, says Durand, is the cost of hiring and retraining as someone who may be less prepared will require more mentoring. The Reality of Being Lifelong Learners Stéphanie Durand, VP of strategic partnerships at CodeSignal, led the sessionAnother big change is that we’ve all become lifelong learners. In the past, we used to go to school, get a degree, and choose our career path. Today, skills are quickly evolving, says Durand. “I think the average shelf life of a skill is 18 months,” she said. “This may have even gone lower with GenAI.”With this in mind, it’s important to continuously upskill to keep up with the skills and even go beyond what universities offer by providing avenues for employees to continuously learn, says Durand.However, Durand cautions that the learning options available to employees may not always be effective. “There’s too much training that is very off-the-shelf, video-based, theoretical, and really doesn’t align to the skills that employees need,” said Durand. Durand highlights the point by providing the example of learning to play an instrument or to play tennis and how you need to practice these skills to really learn them. Simply watching a video on the topic won’t be enough. How Companies Ensure a Ready-to-Work HireThere are three main ways that companies turn a ready-or-not hire into a ready-to-work hire: skills assessment, closing the skills gap, and AI leverage, says Durand. Skills verification is the first best practice, whether for hiring or evaluating your early talent that joins the team. Focus on core skills, not as much on specialized skills, because you may overlook some great hires otherwise. Next, try to avoid multiple choice questions, as these may not really give you an objective assessment of a skill. You should also ensure that when using an assessment that it’s fair and consistent. Durand states that any assessments that are validated by I/O psychologists may be good options. Once you’ve assessed your future hires and noted any skills gaps, you want to close the skills gap. This can be accomplished by hands-on, practical learning interventions rather than multiple choice questions as the former provides a good way to close the skills gap and evaluate potential hires, says Durand.AI can also be a game changer, Durand says. Using an AI tutor enhances learning by providing active feedback, helping individuals prepare for job roles or improving experiential learning for new hires. Unlike passive videos, this approach guides users on how to improve specific skills and job duties.The Future Looks Bright“There’s a lot of uncertainty but also a lot of opportunity ahead,” says Durand.To illustrate the impact of hands-on learning, Durand shared a case study. eBay runs a program for potential interns where participants complete a coding skills assessment before and after the program, and the results are striking, with scores showing a significant jump after the hands-on experience.“Pairing the assessment of skills of your workforce, really being intentional about the type of learning you deploy, and then reassessing again is really where we see eBay as an example, but a lot of companies are going in that direction, too,” said Durand. There is so much happening in universities and in the workplace that gives Durand hope and confidence, including competency-based education, real-world experiences that prepare students for employer expectations, and helping future graduates understand the language of the corporate world.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Kristen Kwiatkowski is a professional freelance writer covering a wide array of industries, with a focus on food and beverage and business. Her work has been featured in Eater Philly, Edible Lehigh Valley, Cider Culture, and The Town Dish. (Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
The Global Currency of Care: Financial Well-Being
BY Stephanie Reed November 14, 2025“The hopes and fears attached to money are remarkably the same globally, and it represents safety, opportunity, dignity and unfortunately, oftentimes, anxiety,” said Mamie Wheaton, director of financial planning at LearnLux.Speaking during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s October virtual conference, Wheaton used the moment to illuminate the emotional currents running beneath our financial lives, and why employers can no longer treat financial well-being as a side benefit. In her session, “The Global Currency of Care: Financial Well-Being,” she laid out how financial management programs are becoming a defining part of modern-day care benefits.To ground the conversation, Wheaton shared a series of polls capturing the state of workplace economics. One poll revealed 88% of employees are financially stressed, according to LearnLux’s Financial Wellbeing in the Workplace report—a reminder of just how much financial strain shapes the employee experience today.Mamie Wheaton, CFP®, CDFA®, director of financial planning at LearnLux, led the session (company photo)Another poll revealed that financial stress causes employees to miss more than 10 days annually. The impact of that financial stress on organizations globally is reduced productivity and higher employee turnover, she says. “When I meet with our planners who are working with employees in the U.S., Europe, or Asia, the details of their financial lives may differ but the underlying truth is the same.” “Money is a uniter and unfortunately, often a stressor,” Wheaton said. In response, employees today are looking for roles that offer truly holistic care benefits, support that acknowledges their financial realities as much as their professional ones. No matter where they live, the desire for meaningful financial wellness support is becoming universal.So how can businesses around the globe meet employees’ concerns of financial instability and uncertainty? And what can employers do to provide effective financial care benefits? First, employers must seek localized guidance. This ensures solutions will adhere to local regulations and financial systems. The necessity of money is a shared human experience, but its acquisition and management are different depending on location. LearnLux hires and consults people who really understand the specificities of a given country and location, says Wheaton. “They understand the political climates of those countries. They understand the financial climates of those countries, and they help us make sure that we are tailoring our program for where they are,” she said. From there, employers need programs with reliable, uniform standards, an essential step in building trust and driving participation. When employees receive impartial support from certified financial planners tailored to their needs, it creates a pathway to stronger financial stability.Lastly, programs should be accessible to everyone. “A financial planner should not be a privilege that’s reserved for a few. It should be a resource that's available to everyone,” said Wheaton.A holistic approach becomes its own universal currency of care, strengthened by digital tools and strong leadership oversight. Technology enables multilingual, virtual financial-planning services, expanding access across languages and locations. At the same time, effective leadership training helps managers build trust and encourage employees to voice their concerns, fostering a more supportive and engaged culture.LearnLux’s training ensures financial guidance is culturally sensitive, relevant, and considerate of localized cultural norms, says Wheaton. The company has successfully assisted 47% of its members in building an emergency savings fund spanning over three months of coverage, she says. This is more than double the national average. Investing in employees’ financial well-being delivers three key benefits: higher retention, increased productivity and engagement, and a stronger, more cohesive company culture.Employees are more likely to stay with an employer that provides financial wellness programs and often report higher satisfaction, says Wheaton. By integrating consistent, localized solutions that reflect current cultural and economic realities, organizations can create a truly effective global currency of care. “These employees see this and they boost engagement, loyalty, and well-being—not just by offering another benefit, but by meeting that deeply human need.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, LearnLux, 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 Puttachat Kumkrong/iStock)
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)