How Nestlé Helped 30,000 U.S. Workers
Access More Personalized Mental Health Support
Key Strategies
THE IMPACT
THEir lessons
with insights from
Judy Cascapera
Chief People Officer, Nestlé North America
Collaborating with its peer-to-peer employee resource groups (ERGs) is another way Nestlé stays tuned in to the wide-ranging backgrounds represented in its workforce, which Cascapera says spans five generations. “We strive for a culture of inclusivity and belonging, and it’s important we foster a safe space so our employees can thrive.” The Nestlé Pride ERG, for instance, encouraged more equitable benefits, like access to LGBTQ+-friendly medical providers and a gender-neutral parental leave policy.
Additionally, Nestlé rolled out a lifestyle spending account in 2022 that gives employees $500 a year to spend on whatever wellness or childcare expenses they see fit. “We had a strong program but needed more flexibility,” Cascapera says. “The Scorecard helps us benchmark our offerings and keeps us constantly thinking about how to best support our employees so they can continue to bring their best selves to work.”
It's not a one-size-fits-all approach: Every community and every individual is unique, and we've got to make sure our benefits reflect that.”
Judy Cascapera
Chief People Officer, Nestlé North America
91%
of Nestlé’s eligible employees participated in its Lifestyle Spending Account program in 2023
18
weeks of paid leave provided to primary caregivers to care for new children through Nestlé’s Parent Support Policy
75,000
covered active employees and dependents within the U.S.
“Since the individual journeys of our employees are so unique, it’s important to us that we develop policies and offerings that are relevant and give employees ways to personalize their benefits based on what’s important to them,” says Judy Cascapera, chief people officer for Nestlé North America.
Share To Transform
“Our transparency in talking about mental health and making it okay to be vulnerable allowed our culture to really evolve.”
Take Tangible Steps
“It’s not just about collecting feedback, but it’s putting it into motion, showing progress and communicating. If you do ask for feedback, you’ve got to act. Employees want to see what you’re doing about it.”
Tune In
“Look at everything through the lens of personalization, choice and flexibility. Find the employee listening strategy that works for you to empower employees to be part of the solutions.”
THEir lessons
THE IMPACT
Key Strategies
with insights from
Van Ayres
Superintendent, Hillsborough County Public Schools
How One Of The Nation's Largest School Districts
Made Preventive Care
More Convenient
Designate A Leader
“Having that designated Wellbeing4U Champion at each site has been so instrumental for us, and making sure that what we prioritize in the school district filters down to all of our 250 sites.”
Set The Tone
Expect A Process
“It took time to build the culture. When we first started our employee well-being effort, participation was probably around 20%. We’re up to 53%—it took longer than anticipated.”
HCPS staff across 250 school locations can participate in a wide variety of wellness offerings, from workout classes and district-wide fitness challenges to on-site biometric screenings and relationship support services.
97%
of employees who participated in the HCPS 2023 Well-being Culture Survey agreed that the district had established a culture of well-being
30%
reduction in medical costs for HCPS employees who were active participants in wellness programming in 2023
14,000
HCPS employees participated in the district’s wellness program in 2023
Our teachers and staff members work extremely hard to serve others. Often in the education field, we forget about ourselves. That’s not what we want for our employees.”
Van Ayres
Superintendent, Hillsborough County Public Schools
A paid “Wellbeing4U Champion” (a teacher or media specialist, for instance) serves as a health ambassador for their school, which includes leading wellness efforts and incentivizing exercise with a little cross-district competition. Staff can accrue points by logging workouts and earn prizes like gift cards while competing for district-wide awards on behalf of their school.
This emphasis on well-being also led to innovative options for staff to keep up with preventive screenings. In 2017, HCPS found that about 98% of its employees with breast cancer were diagnosed right after their first-ever mammogram—due in part to waiting well beyond the recommended age of 40 to begin screening, says Ayres.
So HCPS found a partner offering mobile mammograms in buses and started providing on-site screening at its 250 schools, arranging substitutes so teachers could step out for appointments. Ayres says that today, less than 10% of employees with breast cancer are diagnosed after a first mammogram.
Teachers are known to be selfless—sometimes even to their own detriment. “Typically, educators take care of others first, but we want them to care for themselves and be healthy and resilient role models for our students,” says Van Ayres, superintendent of Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) based in Tampa, Florida, the country’s seventh-largest school district serving nearly 25,000 employees.
The district addresses burnout by implementing practices to create a workplace culture that supports overall employee health. For HCPS, that means creating opportunities for teachers to integrate exercise into the school day, organizing “wellness weeks” and nutritious potlucks, providing accessible therapy, championing work-life balance and more.
Convenient preventive care is part of HCPS’ robust well-being program, which was inspired by the Scorecard and draws from four pillars—physical, emotional, social and financial health—to tailor benefits, team-building events and employee assistance programs that help with everything from student loan support to finding a plumber.
THEir lessons
THE IMPACT
Key Strategies
with insights from
Tracy Layney
Executive Vice President & CHRO, Levi Strauss & Co.
How Levi Strauss & Co.
Made Paid Leave Equal
Be Accountable
“The American Heart Association’s Scorecard helps us stay on top of the latest advancements in workforce health and well-being so we can create the best environment possible for our people and our business.”
Cultivate Empathy
"Feelings of inclusion are more likely to be experienced when a workplace is higher in psychological safety because diverse perspectives are more likely to be heard."
Foster Openness
“We focus our efforts on making sure our employees manage their biases, feel safe to make mistakes, are empowered to make a difference and can give and receive constructive feedback.”
"Our paid leave program is a relatively small investment with a meaningful return," says Layney. In 2023, more than 400 Levi Strauss & Co. employees across 59 different countries used the benefit.
weeks of paid family care leave to care for immediate family members, including domestic partners
8
weeks of paid parental bonding leave available to primary and secondary parents
8
weeks of paid maternity leave offered to all eligible employees, regardless of geographic location
12
Doing right by your people to advance health equity is not only a moral imperative but also a business one. We hope our example of implementing paid leave policies can show companies that this issue directly affects them, their workforces and their ability to stay competitive in our modern U.S. economy.”
Tracy Layney
Executive Vice President & CHRO, Levi Strauss & Co.
That’s just one example of LS&Co.’s broader culture of diversity and inclusion, where “building psychological safety helps everyone feel seen and respected,” Layney says. Leaders liaise with the company’s ERGs, which represent historically marginalized groups and people with shared identities or experiences—women, Black, Latino, Asian and LGBTQ+ employees, people with disabilities and parents of kids with special needs, for example—to stay accountable to addressing the issues disproportionately impacting their lives and careers, from racial disparities in reproductive care to mental health stigmas.
Layney says the Scorecard helps LS&Co. stay on top of advancements in workforce well-being to “create the best environment possible for our people and our business.”
In 2023, the 170-year-old denim company Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) prioritized fair access to paid family and medical leave by standardizing benefits for its global workforce operating in nearly 50 countries. Policy minimums were previously dependent on local and regional laws and standards, but now all eligible employees have the same maternity, parental bonding and family care leave whether they’re located in San Francisco or Singapore.
“Our goal was to create an equitable global core minimum standard,” says Tracy Layney, CHRO and executive vice president. “To truly support employee well-being, we must support everyone’s ability to care for themselves and their closest family members without worrying about their paycheck.”
The change was a win-win: Over 400 employees across the world took paid leave and “didn’t have to choose between tending to their families and tending to their careers,” she says. “Paid leave programs encourage retention, lower training costs, support productivity and foster a culture where people can do their best work while also furthering our equality and diversity goals—allowing more people to take advantage of professional opportunities that present themselves.”
For Caregivers Everywhere
Browse More Workforce Well-Being Standouts
Below, the American Heart Association is recognizing companies
that completed the Well-being Works Better™ Scorecard in 2023.
“It starts at the top. When employees see leaders within our school district—whether principals or staff—that prioritize wellness, it makes it okay for everyone to take a 15-minute walk during the day and get their steps in.”
With a workforce spanning many generations, locations and cultures, personalization and flexibility are key to Nestlé’s benefits strategy. Through its employee listening program, Nestlé leaders heard employees were struggling to get appointments with backlogged therapists in 2021 and 2022. They quickly took action, partnering with a digital mental health platform to meet the needs of a massive workforce dispersed across 28 states.
“Well-being looks different for everybody, and it’s challenging to accommodate the individual needs of a workforce of this size and scale,” says Judy Cascapera, Nestlé’s chief people officer for North America. “But coming out of the pandemic, we knew we had to reevaluate access to mental health resources and ultimately provide a better solution for our employees and their families.” The platform features personalized health screenings, on-demand coaching and curated provider lists to match staff with therapists that meet specific needs, whether they’re navigating depression, chronic illness or parenthood.