Cortez wrote publicly about her own struggles to show staff the importance of mental wellness.
She encouraged Glassdoor to publish its first Diversity & Inclusion Transparency report in 2020.
This article is part of a series highlighting high achievers in HR called Most Innovative HR Leaders.
In October 2020, Carina Cortez published a public blog post on her employer s website. I suffer from and have been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression, the post read. Cortez described her experiences getting help for symptoms like racing thoughts and sleeplessness. Meanwhile, she was managing motherhood and a high-powered career, she wrote.
Cortez is the chief people officer at Glassdoor, a site where employees can review their workplaces. She shared this story before listing some of the most important ways the company supports its employees mental health, including a monthly day off and connection circles, or safe spaces where staff can talk candidly about their emotions.
Bank of America
Bank of America did not make any layoffs or reduce hours during the pandemic.
The bank retrained over 20,000 employees for new roles while 85% of the company worked remotely.
CHRO Sheri Bronstein shared her approach during this time and what she learned from the experience.
This article is part of a series highlighting high achievers in HR called Most Innovative HR Leaders.
The past year presented a completely new set of obstacles for Bank of America s Chief Human Resources Officer Sheri Bronstein. When 85% of the bank s 200,000-person staff went fully remote, Bronstein s team was tasked with making sure workers felt secure financially, emotionally, and physically while working during the public health crisis.
In his words, You should probably be a bit cognitively drained.
Smith is the head of inclusion, diversity, and engagement at content delivery network provider Akamai. He said mental exhaustion is a sign you were listening to the candidate and paying close attention to their answers.
As talent leaders across industries revamp their hiring protocols to be fairer, and to yield a diverse pool of candidates, Smith s test is one simple way to judge the strength of your interview process.
Hiring managers often gravitate toward candidates they d like to be friends with, which can create a more or less homogenous organization of people with similar backgrounds, interests, and personalities. But a job interview done well, at least shouldn t feel like a casual chat with a friend. It should be a space for rigorous assessment of whether this person will add value to the team.