Xue Vang had long known that his job deicing planes, loading bags and chocking wheels at the Missoula airport was dangerous, especially in the Montana winter, when blinding snow and rain obscure the spinning engines that can suck in a human body.
“Empathy is one of the values we’ve had from our founding.” That’s what Chelsea MacDonald, SVP of people and operations at Ada, a tech startup that builds customer-service platforms, told me when we first got on the phone for this story in June. When the company was in its early stages, with about 50 people, empathy was “a bit more ad hoc,” because you could bump into colleagues at lunch. But that was pre-pandemic, and before a hiring surge.
We are witnessing the advent of a new cultural era that is transforming the way we think about the role and functions of HR. First and foremost, that refers to people within productive organizations. Employee engagement, which seemed like an exciting, innovative, smart concept at the beginning of the last decade, is now taken for granted, or at least an expected corporate goal for all industries and all companies.
As organizations address the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), their initiatives touch the personal experiences of team members and associates who have been excluded or on the outside looking in. For them, it may stir up memories of bad experiences in the workplace, or feelings of impatience. They may think, "It's about time." However, those who have always felt included may believe that the culture as a whole is already an inclusive one. Or, they may not be able to relate to the experiences of those who have been excluded. As a result, they may not fully understand why DEI has become such a core focus for many organizations.
Wedged between Frog and Toad and New Urban Arts on Westminster Street, White Electric Coffee has undergone a metamorphosis. The cafe, which has been slinging lattes, espresso and the signature “Buzzo” (housemade coffee milk) since 2000, is the first cafe in Rhode Island to transition to a unionized worker-owned cooperative business model.
More and more, larger employers are offering “wellness” programs that can coach people to better manage their money, combining digital tools and a human touch.