14 HR professionals who are leading through tumultuous times in the workplace with a focus on compassion, mental health, and DEI

Company: Medidata Solutions, a software-development company that works with pharmaceutical, biotech, medical-device, and diagnostics companies. It employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What he's doing to reimagine work amid uncertainty: As part of our employee-engagement strategy, I launched the moments-that-matter campaign, which includes company gatherings during town halls, strategy meetings, and celebrations like Women's History Month or Earth Month.

Employees have been able to connect and it brings something fun into their days. It's been great to see folks chitchatting and connecting with each other during these events, which they wouldn't have done on Zoom.

Additionally, I created stay interviews for employees to discuss top-of-mind issues and career growth, which have resulted in lower-than-industry attrition rates and an 84% engagement rate.

How he's using technology to support his team: My team and I are testing the use of the metaverse for onboarding through virtual HR.

We are still in the experimental stages of our journey and we are focused on a handful of metrics including the adoption rates of AI and metaverse technologies, employee feedback as to whether they're satisfied, and productivity-and-cost savings with this new technology versus manual work.

These analytics and data also help us to monitor internal and external conditions to keep hiring on target. Medidata has avoided layoffs amid recent announcements that some major tech firms were cutting staff.

Company: EY, a global professional services firm whose work includes auditing and consulting. It employs more than 350,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: One of the things we were reminded of significantly during the pandemic was that in times of uncertainty, people look to their organizations for support. And that expectation is to be supported both personally and professionally. We cannot retreat from that people-first mindset particularly during the difficult moments. We need to continue to invest in our people and offer benefits that meet their unique — and evolving — needs.

For instance, knowing that what happens at work has a direct impact on how people "show up," we increased the number of no-cost counseling and mental-health coaching sessions available to our people and each family member in their household from five to 25 per year. We also recently expanded our annual Wellbeing Fund to cover additional items like gaming consoles, vacation lodging and travel, mattresses, and meal-delivery services because wellbeing is personal.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: When I came into this role, I made it clear that my vision for EY is ensuring an atmosphere of belonging, and one that provides opportunity for our people to thrive. In a way, I use this as a North Star in what I do every day. I also believe that creating a sense of belonging starts by leading with empathy. It's about creating an environment where our people feel seen, heard, and valued.

We have a very diverse workforce, and seek to provide equity in opportunities, experiences, and benefits. We continuously ask ourselves whether we're meeting their unique needs so they feel supported. Last year, for example, we launched a queer and trans-led care navigation service benefit for our LGBT+ community.

What she's doing to reimagine work: We've implemented the EY Way of Working (EY WOW). It harnesses the best of how we worked pre-pandemic with our learnings, positive experiences, and benefits achieved throughout the pandemic. At its core, EY WOW provides our people with predictable flexibility in when and how they work, while also fulfilling the connectedness required for high-performing teams.

Our teams, managers and clients decide the best ways of working for them. They have ongoing conversations about when it makes sense to come together and when to work remote. It's been a real success. It provides flexibility and supports individual and team wellbeing without sacrificing growth and connection.

Company: Lionsgate, a Canadian-American entertainment company that focuses on movies and television. It employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address DEI: As a Black woman in America, I understand the benefits of really embracing diversity and representation. And from a business perspective, it just makes sense. I've helped launch partnerships with outside organizations, including the Los Angeles Urban League and the Handy Foundation with our assistant editors.

We've created a pipeline for assistant-editor positions on most of our STARZ productions, through Lionsgate TV, and some of the people in the program had been previously homeless and now they're able to get career skills then be placed on a show.

So we see real examples of the importance of this work and how far the reach can go. Building those partnerships is critical because there's subject-matter expertise and those partners have deep experience in their particular fields.

Company: Teachable, an online platform with courses, coaching, and downloadable content for creators to build their businesses. It employs between 50 and 200 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: In the last year, Teachable transitioned to a fully remote-first company. It was important to revisit and refresh how we were optimizing our remote culture. This included creating a work-from-home stipend, enabling employees to expense work-from-home-related costs such as their internet bill, cell-phone bill, office supplies, or even contribute to a coworking-space rental if needed.

We have a lot of working parents at Teachable, so we also opted to contribute a match to those parents who contribute to a dependent-care savings account.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: Teachable has six employee-resource groups. We've made an intentional effort to ensure each group feels like they have agency over the type of community, discussions, and forums they initiate for their members. My team wants to support them and we understand firsthand how tough these roles can be — both from a time-management perspective, as well as carrying the emotional weight and responsibility of leading others in a vulnerable and personal space.

My team and I created clear guidelines for ERGs that provide them with some structure and a budget but allowed each group to continue using their communities in a way that best serves their members.

Company: Moderna, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology developer. It employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to develop the workforce: We're hiring about 2,000 people this year — expanding globally. When I joined the company — just prior to the pandemic in October of 2019 — we were at about 750 employees, and we'll end the year at around 6,000. So it's been pretty significant growth.

Culture and people are everything to our company. What we were able to accomplish when we were such a small, small base was incredible. And so we want to make sure that when we scale, we keep the culture. And so smart hiring is about really giving people realistic job previews around what it's like to work here, what our mindsets are, what our values are, the concept that we're building, running, and rebuilding.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: How I positioned DEI is actually belonging, inclusion, and diversity. And I was very purposeful in the order because I think if you don't feel like you belong, then it's ultimately not going to be the best experience for you or for us. You're not going to be innovative, you're not going to actually be able to be your true self.

I saw the most incredible human beings on the planet during the pandemic who worked for us, who, when you just allow people to be who they are — and innovative, and good, and bad, and spiky, and all of it — you get incredible results from people because they felt like they belong.

What she's doing to reimagine work: What we do is spend time actually taking a blank sheet of paper and saying, "OK, if you were going to design this outcome for this company, what would it actually look like? And how do you challenge convention and how do you think very, very differently around traditional functional silos and really turn things on its side?" And so we spend a lot of time really thinking about how to restructure work, roles, and people — all with a digital-first lens. Not for cost, but for speed and quality to patients.

Company: 2K, a video game company. It employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

How she's addressing employee needs through benefits: When I started at 2K nearly three years ago, we had a lot of work to do surrounding employee benefits, particularly paternal leave. We've since evolved the offerings to include up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave for all parents, and between 24 to 26 weeks of paid leave for birth parents. This year, we also rolled out our benefits for fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support, which includes covering some financial costs.

Additionally, we've improved our mental-health benefits. At the start of the pandemic, we incorporated a healthcare app called Ginger Mental Health into employee benefits, which enables employees to get quick access to healthcare providers.

Then, eight months ago, we added the Maven app for a more holistic healthcare option.

How she's spearheading DEI effort: I have also facilitated the hiring of a much more diverse workforce since starting at 2K. More than half of 2K's executive leadership team and multiple studio heads are women, which is above industry benchmarks for gaming-and-technology companies.

Because gaming isn't notoriously diverse, we filled positions with applicants from other backgrounds and industries. As soon as we looked outside of the gaming world, the talent pool really opened up.

To create connections with diverse communities and talent, we also have a team dedicated to our outreach strategy and determining which partnerships to invest in. Today, those partnerships include 2K's HBCU internship program and the partnership with the Black Collegiate Gaming Association.

Company: SiriusXM, an entertainment company that produces satellite radio. It employs between 1,000 and 5,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: I developed a hiring-manager checklist, which provides a holistic overview of how the DEI should be integrated in every single step of the hiring process. That checklist offers suggestions and specific actions that managers can take as they review and interview candidates. It includes recommended training on the interview process, and it also includes other learning opportunities to build a diverse candidate pool.

"Pathways" is one of those programs that I am very proud of. It is a program aimed at helping hire recent grads and entry-level talent from HBCUs. And that talent brings a unique perspective to our company. What makes "Pathways" unique is that we place grads in positions that are offered based on their desires and experiences. And that's different than other programs that put people in positions or jobs that are already defined and ask them to fit in. We do just the opposite.

What she's doing to reimagine work: One of the key ways that we are reimagining the workplace is through our ERGs. We call our ERGs communities. And their missions are to provide support, visibility, and empowerment to those that are within their groups, those that have an affinity for their groups. And these communities are really one of the most significant and sustainable elements of progress I've seen in DEI over the last few years. And really our ability to continue to create space for employees to build off of that is integral to our DEI mission.

Mixtape is one of our communities and, just like a mixtape, it's an eclectic group from all walks of life, with the goal of building awareness of our diversity-and-inclusion efforts throughout the company. Their mission is to create a safe space where employees of color and allies can feel comfortable being themselves while addressing issues that are top of mind. They advocate for professional growth and development for diverse employees.

Company: ButcherBox, a meat-delivery subscription service. It employs between 50 and 200 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: I partnered with BetterUp to shift benefits around the whole person, bridging their personal and professional lives. Our employee-engagement survey shows that 90% of responding employees strongly agreed that they had opportunities at work to learn and grow. We had one-on-one coaching and group circles, internal training in time and task management, and launched externally facilitated training in feedback.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: We really think about how to make sure recruiting is tied around DEI. Two years ago we looked at the places where we were posting roles, and there were biases in the languages and places we posted that were leading to a similar profile of candidate. We rewrote job posts without bias and worked with an outside consultant to see where else we could post jobs to get more diverse candidates.

I think trainings we run for hiring managers has been huge — inclusivity training is almost monthly. We lean into training employees to keep their skills up to date in the workplace as, for example, AI develops.

Company: Paramount, a multinational mass-media and entertainment company. It employs more than 10,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What he's doing to address an uncertain economy: Rather than just-in-time hiring, we now hire between 30 and 40 sales associates per cohort twice a year. Now that employees start together, we're able to promote camaraderie and we also connect them with senior leaders across the sales organization who can provide one-on-one mentoring and guidance. At every stage, I oversee a data review and pass-through-rate analysis and we do not move to the next step unless we have complete alignment across my people-analytics team, the sales-strategy team, the talent-acquisition team, and the HR business partners. This is really an example of how people analytics can have an impact — without rigorous analysis, insights, process improvement, and suggested solutions, real change takes far longer to implement.

What he's doing to support DEI efforts: I worked with our office of global inclusion to help evaluate the potential of being one of the first groups of companies to participate in the Management Leadership for Tomorrow, or MLT, Black Equity at Work Index to collect data, create a baseline, and draw up an action plan to address any gaps. MLT audits in five key areas: representation; employee compensation; inclusive, antiracist work environment; racially just business practices; and racial-justice contributions and investments.

Participation in the MLT index is particularly important to me because I like to say, "There is a reason why people come first in people analytics." We analyze so much data that it's critical to remember that behind the numbers are real people who comprise the communities that we serve and are reflected in the stories we tell through our content. As a diverse employee and ally, these initiatives resonate with me and allow us to create a work environment where we can all flourish and thrive.

Company: World Wide Technology, an information-technology and consulting company. It employs between 5,000 and 10,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to develop the workforce: My team and I have created partnerships for employees with unconventional backgrounds to grow their careers. We have several partners, like NPower, which sources talent from underrepresented communities, like military veterans, to take part in skills-based learning. Many of the individuals already have a passion for technology, so the partnerships include training and internship opportunities.

WWT also has internal programs like the Grow with Google certification program, where internal employees can expand their skills and advance within the company. These programs allow us to support our employees and focus on retaining great talent.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: After working with our ABLE ERG, listening to their feedback, and working with the HR team, we saw a need to further support our employees, so we created and hired an accommodations specialist.

To further support neurodiverse employees, we also launched a new program called iSocial, which offers professional-communication-skills workshops to those with ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and Tourette's syndrome. This workshop is a series of case-based sessions designed to empower employees to thrive in their work environment.

Company: PMG, a global advertising company. It employs between 500 and 1,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: We are big believers in equity across all parts of the organization, which includes compensation. In order to offer competitive and fair pay, we regularly look to see how the market is changing and what that means for our employees.

We also conduct quarterly goal-setting meetings with all employees and schedule two intentional evaluation sessions with them each year. There we look at performance and compensation and make any necessary adjustments.

Lastly, we have a third-party organization come in each year to do a pay-equity audit and ensure we have no bias in our pay practice.

How she's addressing DEI: My team and I launched a partnership with Tarrant County College this year called the "Digital Career Accelerator" program. It offers students a free, eight-week course from PMG employees as well as some of our partners from Google and Meta. We teach practical and introductory skills to show them what a digital-media career could look like.

It's important to build lasting relationships with the community around us, which is why we also sponsor clubs and community events at HBCUs around the area. These partnerships are more than just a hiring fair: Our goal is to give back to the local community because we know they support us and the business, too.

Company: Alma, a mental-healthcare company focused on affordable services. It employs between 200 and 500 people, according to LinkedIn.

How she's addressing economic uncertainty and inequity: Last year, I worked with the leadership team on creating a new salary-transparency policy, which includes pay-transparency bands on every job opening.

The entire company follows these bands, where each role that falls on the same rung of the ladder as another will be paid the same amount, with zero negotiation possible.

This was especially important for a diverse workforce because research shows that underrepresented groups and women don't make the same amount as people that are in the majority. On top of that, those same employees don't tend to negotiate or advocate for themselves in salary conversations, and we wanted to eliminate the disparity that's a result of these factors.

How she's addressing the mental-health crisis: Listening to the team at Alma has allowed us to iterate on and roll out new employee benefits, too. We recently overhauled the mental-health benefits to now include a $1,400 annual reimbursement for therapy, a separate $120 monthly wellness stipend, a four-week paid sabbatical after five years, and an expanded family-leave policy to 16 weeks for all new parents.

In 2022, I worked closely with a senior account executive to introduce the time-out policy, which enables employees to take two additional paid days off per year and expense two therapy sessions during traumatic events. This program gives employees the necessary space and time to deal with what they're going through without taking a sick or PTO day.

Company: Chipotle Mexican Grill, a fast-food chain. It employs more than 100,000 people.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: I partnered with health advocates to provide mental-health support, not just for employees, but for their family members who aren't part of our medical plan. Employees could get support for relationships, family issues, and burnout. People could also find childcare and legal services.

Additionally, it's important to upskill our workforce not only for their roles today, but ones they will be in in the future as we expand as an organization. Through our new learning-management system, called "Spice Hub," employees can get operational skills like how to prepare food and work with customers or other people at the company.

What she's doing to support DEI efforts: I work with the Thurgood Marshall Fund to identify potential talent within our organization and provide opportunities to those people, like a debt-free degree, to move up in the organization or in the field. It's one of the partnerships we work with to ensure Chipotle can have an employee population similar to the populations we serve.

We took part in the Management Leadership for Tomorrow on Black Equity at Work certification plan to improve employee representation, whether that be through hiring or developing racially just business practices. We offer allyship training with The Trevor Project, which is overwhelmingly attended and supported by those in the company.

Company: Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a multinational biopharmaceutical company specializing in areas including reproductive health, maternal health, gastroenterology, and urology. It employs between 5,000 and 10,000 people, according to LinkedIn.

What she's doing to address an uncertain economy: I was the lead in implementing the US introduction of a benefits package at Ferring that focuses on helping employees become parents regardless of their medical needs, personal circumstances, or family structures. Ferring is in the business of building families, and I think it's wonderful that we can offer the same kind of benefits that we offer our patients to the employees who work here.

Some of the benefits we offer include unlimited financial support for fertility services, like IVF, along with a 26-week minimum of paid parental leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents. Additionally, we offer four weeks off for miscarriages and more for stillbirths.

I've had employees who I've never met before come up to me at events and say, "Thank you," and it's the best part of my day, week, or month, depending on what's going on.