Nancy Vitale

▶0:01HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'd like to welcome Nancy Vitale, CHRO at Amada Health, to the Built By People podcast. Nancy, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I'd love for you to just tell us a little bit more about your career journey. And what you would like our audience to know about you.

▶1:02GuestSure. And thanks for having me, Dave. It's a pleasure to be with you here today. I'll try not to bore you with too many details, but my career journey actually started when I was a sophomore in college, when I took an organizational psychology, organizational behavior course as an elective, and I actually fell in love with the content. And I asked myself after that course, what could I possibly do in this space as a potential career? And that ultimately led me on a journey to pursue a business degree with a focus in human resources. Fast forward post-college, I've really spent most of my career at big companies, big corporations, including Deloitte Consulting, Cigna, Gillette, which later became Procter Gamble, and then Genentech, which became part of the Roche Group. Back in 2019, I left the corporate world out of what I would describe as a yearning to do something different. And actually ran my own consultancy firm for about 3 years. But that experience was great and allowed me to have this portfolio of different experiences. But I really missed being part of a bigger team and a bigger purpose. And that's ultimately what led me to joining Omada Health in 2022. And in case you're less familiar with Omada Health, we're an in-between visit healthcare provider and we combine relationship building, data and technology to deliver scalable and human-led care to treat members who have chronic conditions, things like diabetes, prediabetes, hypertension, and musculoskeletal issues. Now, when I look back at my career journey, I didn't really plan for this at the outset, but most of my career has actually been spent in the healthcare sector, and that is really where I have found my greatest sense of fulfillment. And I should probably mention as well that while my full-time day job is as Omada's Chief People Officer, I am also a member of the board of directors at a publicly traded life sciences company called Voyager

▶3:11HostTherapeutics. Excellent. Well, thank you for that thorough and awesome introduction, Nancy. I know that a big focus of our time today is going to be around this concept of the employee value proposition. Am I Starting question around that is, how would you define an employee value proposition, and can you share an example of an effective one?

▶3:34GuestSure. Well, I'd first define an employee value proposition, or we can call it EVP for short. It's really the unique rewards that are received and ultimately valued by employees in return for their contributions to their performance and impact really that they deliver to a particular company. And an EVP actually covers a broad set of factors that we can describe as a combination of two things: intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. We think of intrinsic rewards as those that are really internally derived rewards that employees experience simply by their day-to-day work. And the environment that they work in. And then extrinsic rewards are rewards that have some monetary value attached to them and include things like pay, benefits, and other rewards with a financial value. And I would say an effective EVP encompasses both of these factors, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that a company uniquely offers to its employees. And these are directly linked to what draws prospective candidates into that particular company and then ultimately motivates and retains those employees to perform, contribute, and stay with the company. Now, from my experience, a well-articulated EVP is crucial for companies to leverage, as it essentially answers the question, why should you work here and why should you stay here? And then I would say finally, it probably goes without saying, but an effective EVP has to be genuine and authentic. And you have to really ensure that what the EVP claims to deliver is actually aligned to what employees actually receive and experience.

▶5:25HostAnd Nancy, how do you align an EVP with the overall business strategy and the organization's goals?

▶5:33GuestYeah, I'll take a step back because I actually think less about an EVP aligning to business strategy and goals and more about how an EVP aligns with the higher-level company mission, vision, and values, as well as how a company helps employees ultimately be at their best and do their best work. A big influence on the way I have thought about all of this, really over the last decade or so, relates to all of the wellbeing research out in the market that points to some particular areas that enable people to live their best life. Both at work and outside of work. And what I highlight is what the research articulates. I'll simplify it to 4 key areas in particular. Purpose, which is essentially having meaning in your work. So think here about how your employee value proposition aligns with your company mission, as well as each employee's particular function and role. The second one is social connection. Think here about how your EVP aligns with how the particular organization cultivates a sense of community for folks at work and enables the nurturing of collaborative working relationships within your organization. The third one here, financial, I would think here about how the EVP addresses those extrinsic rewards that I mentioned earlier, which addresses the unique financial wellness needs of your employees to live the independent lives that they desire to lead. And then finally, mind-body health. Think here about not only the benefit offerings you provide to support your employees' mental and physical health, but really how your day-to-day culture and the environment in which people operate is amplifying your employees' overall well-being. That's how I think about these general constructs of EVP.

▶7:28HostWhat are some of the most innovative and effective EVPs that you've discovered in your career, and what lessons are to be learned from those?

▶7:36GuestYeah, well, first of all, Dave, I'm going to admit to being somewhat biased here and probably not surprise you that I'm a big fan of Omada's employee value proposition because I think it's quite compelling. We've been really intentional and thoughtful about developing it and keeping it fresh, and we essentially have 6 components that comprise our EVP. The first includes an inspiring mission of helping people nurture lifelong health one day at a time. The second component of our EVP includes an investment in leaders through development experiences. These are programs that we offer, like our people leader development experience, our director development experience, and our vice president development experience. And it also features consistently high manager net promoter scores as a result. The third component is development and growth for all Omadans through our Omada Learn offerings, as well as our plans to increase what I would describe as AI IQ and how Omadans can leverage AI in the future as an always-on teammate and an always-on learning partner. The fourth for us is an environment where employees have meaningful relationships and a sense of connection with one another. For us, even in a remote-first environment, because I would say our lived values of cultivate trust and succeed together is how we bring this one to life. The fifth for us is flexibility and work-life support, and this is directly tied to our remote-first culture and includes a curated set of resources to help people achieve the work-life harmony that they seek here at Omada. And then finally, it includes competitive pay, unique benefits and perks, as well as long-term savings and wealth creation opportunities. Through what we have as a full suite of total rewards. Now, I know that's a lot, but if folks want to see a visual representation of our EVP, they can easily check that out on our Omada Health company site on LinkedIn and check out the Life tab. But I would say beyond our own employee value proposition, I would highlight a couple other companies that I think have really strong value propositions. Companies like Google, Adobe, and my former employer, Genentech, come to mind. What I would say about those learnings is whether you look at, at our EVP or others, the most compelling ones, in my humble opinion, incorporate the aspects of those 4 key areas I mentioned earlier: purpose, social connection, financial, mind-body health. But it's not just about incorporating those aspects into the EVP. It's really about uniquely capturing the specifics that are truly unique and speak to the segment of the talent market that you want to attract and retain.

▶10:25HostNancy, how do you measure the effectiveness of an EVP, and how can CHROs ensure that their EVP is relevant and appealing to all employees?

▶10:36GuestI think the best way to measure your EVP effectiveness is through ongoing employee surveys and a broader sentiment analysis. We do both long-form engagement-type surveys twice a year and shorter pulse surveys at least quarterly here at Almada. This way you can more holistically understand, you know, what is landing and what is not with regard to your EVP. I think focus groups are another great way to understand what may or may not be working with your EVP and identify perhaps what's no longer relevant to your workforce or what might be missing that is important to them that you're not either articulating or you're not offering. I would say another way to assess if your EVP is relevant and effective is to get direct feedback from job candidates about what drew them in to actually apply to your company, and then to pulse new hires after they've been on board for a while to check if what they expected to see from the EVP meets what they're actually experiencing inside the company. I'll say some of the metrics we track specifically align to some— to those components of our EVP and include a few things like employee net promoter score, manager net promoter score. We also measure the percent of our population that experience an internal move in any given year. And we also measure the percent of employees that feel connected to their fellow Almada. And so this is just a sampling of some of the metrics, but the metrics should really align with what your EVP

▶12:14Hostarticulates. Any parting advice, Nancy, that you'd like to share with our audience?

▶12:18GuestWell, when it comes to employee value propositions, if you are building one from scratch, I would recommend that you start with what you already know about your company and what is unique about the benefits and experiences you offer to your employees. Ask job candidates what they find interesting and compelling about your company and consider the things that you do and/or the offerings that you have that fit under those 4 categories I mentioned earlier: purpose, social connection, financial, mind-body health. Ultimately, I believe a compelling EVP truly strengthens your employer brand and enhances your ability to attract and retain talent, which uniquely positions your company to compete for talent, the talent that you want in the marketplace. I would say if you already have an existing employee value proposition, ask yourself if and how you measure its effectiveness and how often you're assessing if what you proclaim your EVP to be is actually what employees are experiencing. And then finally, just, you know, I, I tell folks to keep in mind that a well-articulated EVP is critical for companies to leverage, as what you're essentially answering is why work here and why stay here. And I, I think that some companies may not really be thinking about this right now because we have a bit of a softer labor market and many organizations are actually experiencing lower attrition rates than what they saw in the post-pandemic Great Resignation era. But I would just advise folks that the time is actually ripe and now to be thinking about this, because as soon as the labor market opens back up, organizations are really going to want to ensure that they have a well-articulated employee value proposition, both to attract new candidates in, but also to reinforce that story to their existing workforce of why stay here.

▶14:16HostNancy, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure having you involved.

▶14:20GuestThank you so much, Dave.