Life can be unpredictable, and we don’t like it that way.

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From Day One Editors
April 28, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes

Our brains were designed for certainty. Humans look for patterns in our surroundings to form useful habits and conserve mental energy. Always have: Hunting buffalo in the winter when the animals’ coats are thick. Sowing seeds in the spring before the rains. Buying our lattes from the same reliable coffee shop week after week.

These days, a lot feels unsettled: Tariffs on or off? Financial markets up or down?  Recession is possible, but who knows? The Trump administration’s disdain for DEI and ESG has upended workplace culture and hiring practices, leaving many employees confused or upset about their company’s values and practices.

All this comes at a time when employee engagement is at a ten-year low. Just 31% of workers report feeling engaged, according to a Gallup survey released in January, well before the current administration began its rapid-fire changes. 

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“Economic uncertainty remains a significant drag on the sentiment of workers as tariffs, federal funding and workforce cuts, and general business uncertainty disrupt investment and hiring plans”

Glassdoor’s lead economist, Daniel Zhao

No kidding. And it could get worse. How can HR leaders and other managers respond?

The first thing is to understand  the physiology, recommends Lesley Alderman, a psychotherapist and journalist, in a new story for From Day One. Uncertainty rattles our nervous system, she reports. It creates a sense of ambiguity that our minds struggle with. “The stress of uncertainty, especially when prolonged, is among the most insidious stressors we experience as human beings,” said Aiofe O’Donovan, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, back in 2020, when the pandemic was our biggest problem. Now impacting our psyches are the upending of global alliances, accepted health practices, and predictable weather patterns.

Ready to see where your workplace culture really stands—and how to make it even better? LineZero’s free, personalized Employee Experience (EX) report is here to help! In just 7 minutes, answer a few quick questions about your workplace culture and internal communications. We’ll send you a custom report packed with real insights and tailored recommendations. Understand your company’s EX performance, see how you stack up against others in your industry, and get actionable tips to boost engagement and culture. Once your report’s ready, chat with a LineZero expert to dive into the details and map out your next steps. No stress. Just clear, practical advice to help you create a happier, more connected workplace. Don’t miss out—Take the quiz now!

Some workers are literally cracking their teeth from stress, dentists in Washington, D.C., have discovered recently. Even Slackmojis have taken a very dark turn.

When our prediction-seeking brains are challenged with too many plot twists, we tend to feel threatened, scared, and overwhelmed. But there are proactive steps that leaders can take to restore some calm, promote needed focus on work, and reduce the long-term, unhealthy effects

RECENT EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Despite headlines over the last year touting the full RTO of major corporations like JPMorgan Chase and Amazon, Nicholas Bloom, the foremost expert on remote work and professor of economics at Stanford, says the RTO trend seems to have already passed.

Extra Space Storage is a self-storage company that has over 4,000 facilities across the U.S. and employs 8,000 workers. The company has also had only three CEOs since 1977.  Whitney Harper, the company’s SVP of people, spoke with moderator Robert Gehrke.

While data and process are important elements of running a global business, Liz Ference, head of employee experience at Mattel, says “there’s something that’s really missed when we don’t consider the qualitative side of things as well.”

HR is a big job, and teams are feeling the pressure. SHRM’s 2025 State of the Workplace report showed that 62% of HR professionals feel like they’ve been over their capacity in the last year and 57% report being understaffed.

Upcoming Webinars

April 29

Whether at work or in our personal lives, unseen obstacles can prevent growth, innovation, and success. From ingrained habits and resistance to change to structural challenges and workplace culture, identifying what holds us back is the first step toward meaningful progress. Understanding these barriers not only fosters self-awareness but also empowers us to take actionable steps toward positive change. This webinar will explore common barriers—both individual and organizational—and provide practical strategies for overcoming them.

May 6

GLP-1 medications are transforming the treatment of obesity, a challenge affecting millions of U.S. workers. Yet the high cost is a significant concern for companies looking to balance access with affordability. In this session, leaders from Noom will break down the GLP-1 cost cycle and identify ways organizations can provide affordable access to GLP-1s and other anti-obesity medications regardless of their coverage policies. You'll learn how the obesity crisis is affecting employers, the impact of GLP-1 compounds, and how Noom can help you confidently manage GLP-1 costs and achieve long-term return on investment.

May 15

Two years after ChatGPT reshaped the AI landscape, AI adoption has moved from hype to reality—seamlessly integrating into the tools we use daily. As hiring teams navigate this shift, understanding AI’s impact is more important than ever. In this fireside chat, Meredith Johnson, chief product officer at Greenhouse, will discuss how AI is already enhancing recruiting processes without adding complexity. You'll learn how AI is already embedded in your hiring workflow without extra steps, the real impact of AI-powered automation on recruiter efficiency, and what's next for AI in hiring—plus how to stay ahead of the curve.

May 22

Companies are leveraging HR technology to gain a competitive advantage over competitors while attracting and maintaining an engaged and productive workforce. From AI-driven benefits recommendations to flexible earned wage access, this session will explore how implementing the right innovative HR solutions can transform your business. From industry experts, you'll learn how innovation in HR technology can enhance employee engagement and productivity, how meaningful advances in technology can be leveraged as powerful tools for recruiting and retention, and which employee benefits have the greatest day-to-day impact.

May 29

For too long, HR teams have been bogged down in administrative work, managing shared inboxes, responding to routine questions, and handling repetitive requests. But what if your HR team had an AI teammate that could handle the administrative burden, giving your people more time to focus on what really matters? In a fireside chat, Wisq CEO Jim Barnett sits down with a forward-thinking HR leader to explore how AI is already changing the game. You’ll hear firsthand how an organization can use purpose-built HR AI to improve productivity, enhance the employee experience, and free up time for more strategic, human-centered work. If you’ve been experimenting with AI or wondering how to begin, this session will give you a real-world look at what it takes to lead AI transformation, responsibly and effectively, from within HR. 

June & Beyond

Sponsor Spotlight: Meltzer Hellrung

What Trump’s Immigration Agenda Means for Employers:

Do you and your team have a plan in place if ICE shows up at your office looking for one of your employees? It’s a shocking thought, but something that HR must now consider in our new normal. The new Trump Administration 2.0 is moving aggressively on new immigration policies, including significant changes to the immigration process. Yet we have plenty of experience from his first term to help guide us toward adapting to the new era. During a recent From Day One webinar, attorneys Matthew Hellrung and Matthew Meltzer, co-founders and managing partners of Meltzer Hellrung Immigration Solutions, discussed what they see as the most likely immediate adjustments, as well as later developments, and the steps you can take now to ensure compliance and minimize disruptions to your immigration program moving forward. They offered an insightful and practical guide to how employers can adapt and anticipate the myriad changes to U.S. immigration policy to ensure access to a global talent pool. Read the full story here.

Sponsor Spotlight: SoFi At Work

Student Debt in 2025: Essential Benefits for Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent

The student debt landscape has undergone rapid change in the past four years, with new repayment options, proposed forgiveness programs and further shifts anticipated under the new presidential administration. According to BestColleges, public college tuition increased an average of 5% a year between 2001 and 2021. During a From Day One webinar, Jon Harold, head of sales and partnership success at SoFi at Work, shared the big picture of student loans, the student debt crisis, and how that’s affecting employees. SoFi at Work is a division of SoFi, a company known for pioneering student loan refinancing and being a one stop shop for your financial needs. “Student loans are now at $1.7 trillion, a crisis in the U.S., with over about 25% of Americans holding student debt,” said Harold, making the situation especially urgent. Read the full story here.

From Day One in a City Near You

McNamara Alumni Center at The University of Minnesota

Venue Six10 on Michigan Avenue in The Chicago Loop

Alfred Lerner Hall at Columbia University

AT&T Conference Center at University of Texas

Fort Mason Center on the San Francisco Waterfront

The Union League on Broad Street in Center City

Edward M. Kennedy Institute at Columbia Point in South Boston

The Rubell Museum in Wynwood in Downtown Miami

Hudson Loft on Hope Street in DTLA

Half-Day Virtual Conferences

What was once a fairly standard set of offerings has blossomed into myriad point solutions, many of them beneficial to workers yet creating a daunting task for benefits leaders to evaluate and adopt them. With such an abundance of choice, what  new approaches are benefits leaders taking to designing comprehensive benefits packages? How are benefits experts measuring employee expectations, quality of outcomes, and return on investment? How are they informing employees about the growing complexity of what’s available to them? How can employers hold vendors accountable for delivering on their promises–and carry out changes when needed? Where are areas in which data and AI can help with complicated decision-making?

In the movement towards focusing more on skills than on degrees and work experience, L&D professionals are tasked with transforming age-old systems of measuring worker aptitude. What are the elements of moving toward a new system–and how can AI and other technologies help? What are the best methods of creating a taxonomy of skills needed in an organization, now and in the future? How can L&D leaders systematically judge situations where upskilling will be effective, or reskilling is needed? What are the best new methods of training, including the use of simulations to imitate real-world applications? Can employers design programs that have a more durable impact, so that workers don’t slip back into their old ways of doing things? How can L&D experts gain more insights from the skills data they’re gathering?

When workers can get more done with less time or effort, everyone benefits. How can HR leaders collaborate with their management peers to evaluate workflows, staffing levels, digital tools, and other elements that affect worker efficiency? What are the leadership approaches that increase workforce productivity–and how can managers be developed to lead with authenticity, empathy and adaptivity? Why do productivity-boosting changes often encounter resistance–and how can those obstacles be overcome? What is the role of priority-setting in helping workers manage their time?

Most major corporations need to distribute their work across regions, markets, and labor pools. Yet it can be immensely challenging to overcome all the barriers of language, culture, legal systems, and the effect of time and distance. What solutions are talent-acquisition and talent-management experts using to close the gaps? What are the emerging technologies and leadership skills that can help managers be more effective in supervising both workflow and worker well-being? What are the keys to managing a contingent workforce on a globally coordinated basis?

A technology boom has provided HR leaders with both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, AI and other new tech can help match people to workforce needs, reduce bias in hiring, and produce an abundance of data to inform people-management decisions. On the other hand, HR experts need to venture beyond their comfort zones to embrace new tech platforms, collaborate energetically with colleagues with different expertise, choose among myriad new offerings, and recognize the limits and pitfalls of technology. What ideas and advice can be offered by HR leaders who’ve taken an innovative approach to embracing new technology? What are the new frontiers yet to be explored.

Work changed radically in the first half of the decade, but more change is sure to come. What are the emerging contours? What further tasks will humans delegate to automation and what new skills will workers need to acquire? What will be the future of the full-time job, the career path, and the role of managers? HR leaders, researchers, thinkers and doers will offer their unconventional predictions about the future of work and workers.