Managing a Workforce via Diversity and through Adversity

in motion for the company’s workforce future, but then COVID-19 forced her team to pivot on a global scale. “I wasn’t really ready for the chaos the pandemic created—no one in business was,” Wechter says. “My mind had been focused on launching new HR initiatives and then I had a huge, new, unexpected one to deal with. Luckily, Citi is blessed with a fantastic medical office and security team, and all of our business heads came together quickly to make sure our employees around the world were safe.”

She ran Citi’s North American crisis response team and oversaw the big strategic decisions worldwide for its workforce. “Transparent and frequent communication with our employees was key,” Wechter says. “We let them know we were more focused on health data than we were on some set date when it came to when and how people would return to the office.”

Like many major employers, Citi transitioned to remote and hybrid work environments wherever it could. “If you would have asked me in early 2020 if I could imagine a hybrid bank in my lifetime, I would’ve said no,” she says. “Then just months later, it became a reality. Citi was the first large bank to commit to a hybrid model in early 2021, and we have remained consistent on it.”

Citi found the hybrid schedule improved employee productivity. “We discovered the vast majority of our employees worked more hours from home than they did in the office, primarily because they didn’t have to commute anymore,” Wechter says. “It also gave them more flexibility to take care of themselves as human beings.”

It also had a positive effect on worker well-being.

“The pandemic forced us to take a step back and make our employees’ health a bigger priority—especially their mental health,” she says. “In fact, because it was such a pressing issue. I think we’re now ten years ahead of where we would have been on the mental health front without this crisis. Perhaps most important it normalized our ability to have open and transparent conversations in the workplace about stress, anxiety, and depression.”

Now that things are se ling into a “new” normal, it appears Wechter’s approach to pu ing employees’ needs first is paying off. “Our recruiting and retention numbers have never been be er,” she says. “I think people have seen what we’ve done to give them more flexibility and treat them with greater empathy. We hope they truly see us as that rare bank with a soul.”—Roger

TOWN HALL’S A BIG KICK

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe served as the guest of honor at the 41st annual Carter Town Hall held at Emory this fall. Started in 1982 at the behest of President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, the Carter Town Hall was intended to inspire first-year students with a chance to meet President Carter and ask him any question under the sun (read more on page 18). Since retiring from public life, Carter has deferred his once-starring role to admirable guests like Rapinoe. She is one of the most recognizable soccer players in the world. She helped the US Women’s National Team win the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments and Team USA win gold against Japan at the 2012 London Olympics. Off the field, Rapinoe has been a fierce advocate for many social justice issues, especially gender, racial, and LGBTQ+ equality. Most notably, Rapinoe and her teammates sued the US Soccer Federation (USSF) for gender pay inequity and won a $24 million settlement, as well as the USSF’s commitment to pay men and women players at an equal rate moving forward. At the town hall, first-year students in attendance were invited to ask Rapinoe about her career and activism. In her answers, she encouraged students to use college as a time to figure out who they are and to use their voices to speak out against injustices and speak up for themselves.

Artful Classrooms

As Emory’s Arts and Social Justice (ASJ) Fellows program enters its third year of programming, it welcomed eleven Atlanta-based artists to collaborate with faculty, staff, and students at the university this fall. The cohort of artists includes Leo Briggs, John E. Doyle Jr., Mark Kendall, Jessica Hill, Sierra King, Juel Lane, T. Lang, Alex Mari, Amina McIntyre, David Perdue (see story on page 30), and Kacie Willis. Each fellow is paired with an Emory faculty member from across the university, including teachers from Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Goizueta Business School, and Oxford College. The artists work with their faculty partners to reimagine an existing course, injecting a creative approach to addressing social justice issues that surface within class conversations. “We are thrilled that in the third year of this program we are able to expand participation of students, faculty, and artists so substantially,” says Kevin C. Karnes, associate dean for the arts in Emory College and co-director of the ASJ program.

Getting Out The Vote

The nonpartisan Emory Votes Initiative (EVI), led by program coordinator Hannah Joy Gebresilassie, played a big role in making voting easier for students, faculty, and staff this past mid-term election cycle. Members of EVI helped first-time voters navigate the process, hosted registration drives, shared key dates, and overall got the word out to increase participation rates across Emory campuses.

Formed in 2018, EVI has since doubled the number of students registered to vote and tripled the number of students participating in elections. Gebresilassie, along with student volunteers, spoke to classes and at sorority and fraternity meetings to make sure students understood the importance of voting. They also hosted panel discussions and directed students to reliable information where they can learn more about the issues on their state’s ballot. For non-Georgians, EVI worked to ensure that students have the voter information they need for their respective states. EVI even collaborated with the university’s Office of Government and Community Affairs to help the Emory campus become a DeKalb County polling location.

Infectious Leadership

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the nation’s top infectious diseases professional organization, has selected Carlos del Rio—professor of medicine at Emory School of Medicine, professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health and executive associate dean of Emory at Grady Health System—as its new president. Del Rio will work with the board of directors, alongside other newly elected representatives, to advance the society’s strategic priorities focused on promoting excellence in patient care, education, research, public health, and prevention relating to infectious diseases. IDSA is made up of more than twelve thousand practicing physicians, academic scientists and researchers, infectious disease specialists, and hospital epidemiologists. The organization and its members play a critical role in some of the most important topics in medicine today—such as offering guidance and care for COVID-19, tackling the growing threat posed by antimicrobial resistance, and addressing emerging outbreaks such as Ebola virus disease and monkeypox.