So, for D&I or diversity and inclusion contexts, an organization should have clear guidelines on how they share diversity data as well, how they provide context and the choices that they give. Because, again, it’s not your data, alright? It is your customer’s data. And so that’s sort of the lens at which I look at it. And it’s sort of broadly reaching. It doesn’t, it’s just the human-centered way to talk about data privacy in the context of the people we serve, specifically protected classes, and being inclusive and equitable in how we implement some of these solutions.

Episode 397: Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Extended Reality With Noble Ackerson

 

Welcome to the Workology Podcast, a podcast for the disruptive workplace leader. Join host Jessica Miller-Merrell, founder of Workology.com as she sits down and gets to the bottom of trends, tools, and case studies for the business leader, HR, and recruiting professional who is tired of the status quo. Now here’s Jessica with this episode of Workology.

Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:01:12.80] his episode of the Workology Podcast is part of our Future of Work series powered by PEAT, The Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology. PEAT works to start conversations about how emerging workplace technology trends are impacting people with disabilities at work. This podcast is powered by Ace The HR Exam and Upskill HR. These are two courses that we offer here at Workology for certification prep and recertification for HR leaders. Before I introduce our guest, I want to hear from you. Please text the word “PODCAST” to 512-548-3005 to ask questions, leave comments and make suggestions for future guests. This is my community text number and I want to hear from you. Today I’m joined by Noble Ackerson, Director of Product for AIML with Ventera Corporation. He’s the Chief Technology Officer at the American Board of Design and Research and President of CyberXR Coalition. Noble is an award-winning product executive, an expert in AI, and an advocate for equitable, diverse, and inclusive XR. Noble, welcome to the Workology Podcast.

Noble Ackerson: [00:02:22.80] I’m so honored to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:02:25.65] Let’s talk a little bit about your background and how it led to the work you do now.

Noble Ackerson: [00:02:29.97] Yeah, thank you. I currently, as you mentioned, lead product for Ventera. We are a technology consulting firm based out of Reston, Virginia, and we serve federal customers and commercial customers to business units that I, my team, service. I like to say that, within the last few years, we’re now in an AI gold rush, an artificial intelligence gold rush, and quite a few startups, enterprises, consulting firms, what have you, are all selling shovels, right, to help capitalize on this AI trend. But, at Ventera, you know, I founded The Hive. We call it human-centered AI at Ventera with a lot of bee puns because, you know, I like puns, and I lead my teams to build safety equipment with this. If I were to keep this analogy going, safety equipment for my customers, because when things go bad with AI, it goes bad exponentially, potentially exponentially and, at scale, and could adversely impact, you know, our customers’ brand, trust, and of course, their bottom line. Before Ventera, I worked for the National Democratic Institute, which was one of the larger NGOs, non-governmental organizations, international development firms serving about 55 countries out of the U.S.

How does accessibility work and who should be overseeing decisions, recommendations, and managing requests? These are important questions we should really be thinking about now especially with so many of us working virtual and remote. While remote work makes it easier for people with disabilities to have work because that work can now be at home. It does, however, make accessibility and accommodation requests different because we are working online and digitally.

Episode 241: What Department Should Oversee Accessibility at Your Company? with Pina D’Intino

(@pdintino) 

This episode of the Workology Podcast is part of our Future of Work series powered by PEAT, the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this July, we’re investigating what the next 30 years will look like for people with disabilities at work, and the potential of emerging technologies to make workplaces more inclusive and accessible. I’m joined by Pina D’Intino. Pina is a sought-after consultant , entrepreneur and speaker who actively promotes accessibility and inclusion from both executive-level and grassroots perspectives by bridging the viewpoints and needs of the organization, employees, and customers to establish best-practices environments.

As the owner of Aequum Global Access Inc, her team of accessibility experts help businesses and organizations develop their accessibility strategies and plans, measure and report on compliance and provide guidance for remediation. Aequum Global Access also provides accommodation services, training  and project management services.

She is currently working with the Government of Canada, helping  departments develop their  roadmaps, provide consultation and technical support. In 2013, Pina received the QE2 Diamond Jubilee medal by Canada’s Lt. Governor the Honourable David Onley for her work in accessibility in employment.

Should HR Be in Charge of Accessibility and Accommodation Requests

Our work responsibilities as HR leaders are vast, and this often includes fielding workplace accessibility and accommodation requests. Since Pina is really an expert in this area, I thought it best to inquire about who should be fielding these type of requests. More and more companies have accessibility teams and/or Chief Accessibility Officers. We’ve seen this at companies like Accenture and IBM, but I wondered if it’s a trend she is seeing herself more and more. While these types of roles are becoming more common, Pina is seeing HR remain the central point of accessibility requests. She shares some of her experiences when it comes to technology accessibility and the increased involvement for involving a company’s IT department. Pina says as more companies are remaining virtual, IT and HR will need to work together moving forward. She says that remote work options offer employees more flexibility and accessibility than ever before.

Pina and I talk not just about accessibility requests from employees but also job seekers who need accommodation as part of the hiring and selection process. She shares her own personal experiences including how she has had conversations with employers in the past. These types of conversations are important for employers to hear because quite often we don’t receive requests because candidates don’t feel comfortable, out of fear, or because it is not clear how to request an accommodation especially if your hiring process doesn’t make it easy for candidates to interface with HR or a hiring manager directly. Think of all the automation we use in recruiting especially with email. When most candidates apply for a job, there is no direct path to contact someone in HR or recruiting to even request an accommodation.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the number of people who have worked remotely because of concern about the coronavirus has risen by 46 percentage points according to the latest Gallup poll data. Sixty-two percent of employed Americans currently say they have worked from home during the crisis, a number that has doubled since mid-March. And while 59% of remote workers are confident they are successfully meeting their job requirements, employers are struggling to balance supporting remote workers with plans to reopen physical locations in preparation for a return to the office.

Episode 237: Long-Term Work From Home Strategies with Dave Landa (@DaveLanda) 

Today I’m joined by Dave Landa, CEO of Kintone Corporation, which provides a teamwork platform with a visual application builder that empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to effectively manage their data and workflow for better collaboration. Since 2004, Dave has been at the forefront of the cloud revolution, driving strategic business development on the executive teams of leading SaaS application providers. 

What Does Work From Home Look Like Right Now? 

Dave shares about how his company went all virtual early on in early March of this year. Kintone’s parent company is located in Japan so Dave and his leadership team had been following the pandemic early on. The company easily made the transition and plans to go remote on a permanent basis. Hear how he and his team accomplish this and the ways they are keeping engagement and their culture fresh.

While working from home is amazing, it is very easy to burn out. You, as an individual working in a new work situation are faced with new and different challenges that I know Dave and I often take for granted. I’ve been working virtually for the last 11 years and I often forget my early struggles to adjust to the virtual and remote work world early on. This is important to remember for your individual team members not to mention thinking about ways to keep your employees and teams engaged, connected, and excited about working whether it’s at home, in another location away from the office, or in other time zones. Personally, one of the biggest challenges I have found is finding ways to connect with my team members who are working 7-10 hours ahead of my own schedule.

The Secret to Leading Your Virtual Team

I asked Dave what his secret is to leading a virtual team. At the heart of it he says, is trust. You have to trust that your team makes good decisions, holds themselves accountable, and will get the job done they have been asked to do. He is empowering his team to take ownership because right now we are really all in this together. Transparency from leadership is also really important. Dave says it’s not just business and leadership that needs to be transparent, employees need to feel comfortable to share their own challenges and seek out support when they need them. Everyone is going through their own personal struggles right now and as business leaders we need to encourage our employees to come forward if they are needing help whether it’s new equipment to do their jobs, schedule flexibility, or seeking out mental health professionals to lend a ear and help employees and their families talk with a professional about the difficulties they are facing. At the heart of all of this is a focus on communciation. You have to be intentional as a leader to connect, engage, and talk to your employees. Dave shares some of the fun activities that have been working with his team. For my team, we are sharing our favorite recipes. Since my team is global,

With so many changes in with HSA, ACA, and new telehealth and telemedicine options, plus FSA, HSA and EAP options, employees are overwhelmed by making upcoming benefits and health insurance selection as new hires, but also as part of their annual enrollment. HR leaders are tasked with helping employees understand and navigate these healthcare selections, and it’s not an easy challenge.

Episode 235: Better Healthcare Benefit Communication with Justin Holland (@jh_healthjoy) 

Today I’m joined by Justin Holland, CEO, and Cofounder of HealthJoy, the first benefits experience platform that combines an AI-powered virtual assistant with a team of online medical providers and healthcare concierges to deliver a simple, mobile experience that employees can turn to when they need care. Justin helped build HealthJoy to $48.5M in funding and 220 employees in three countries and its platform serves hundreds of thousands of members every day. 

1 in 3 Employees Don’t Understand Their Healthcare Benefits

As an HR leader, I know you understand that employees are clueless about their healthcare benefits. In fact, 33 percent of employees don’t understand their current healthcare offerings at their organization. Personally, I found this number to be a little too low in my experience. Are an HR leader, it is a challenge during annual benefits enrollment to field questions, and I know that so many employees and their partners are left without answers when it comes to their healthcare plans. Justin shares that using machine learning technologies like HealthJoy are helping freeing up HR leaders and allowing employees and their partners to get instant access to their healthcare plan information. For me, I’ve found the most common question about a healthcare plan’s from employees is the group number. Just says that this is true, but the healthcare virtual assistant, Joy’s work goes beyond that providing resources including doctor’s that accept current plans and even emergency rooms that are within a specific location.

Justin says that normally one person in a household is the benefits point of contact and often times this person is the partner that is not the employee of the organization which makes communciation about things like open enrollment a challenge for HR teams. It seems like these type of healthcare benefit plans questions need answering outside of normal business hours. In my experience, they happen late at night and often just before the annual enrollment deadline. Don’t get me started on the number of benefit questions I received written in all caps and with sheer panic at 9:00 PM on the Sunday before deadline is too many to count. Justin and his company’s work is changing all that.

How COVID-19 Is Changing Telehealth and Your Employee Benefit Plans 

I remember the first time I called the nurse’s line to ask a question about my young daughter running a fever. I had questions about the dosage. It felt weird asking for advice when I wasn’t in the room, but I quickly learned as a new parent that tele-health appointments and the on-call nurse’s line were essential and continue to be. With the majority of us now working from home and being limited geographically to an area that’s outside of our offices, the use of telemedicine is dramatically increasing.

While I’ve used tele-health for many years, not everyone especially your employees have felt comfortable talking to a doctor via web cam. COVID is dramatically changing the way we use healthcare and how our employees are embracing our healthcare benefit programs focused on virtual and online services. As HR leaders, we need to be reminding employees of different healthcare program benefits keeping them...

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