Delta Air Lines has hired championship quarterback Tom Brady as a strategic advisor to work on training and "teamwork tools" as well as marketing and community engagement. Brady will spend his first year with the company working on programs for employee "onboarding, cultural familiarity and immersion into the Delta organization," according to the airline.

Academic research shows the importance of promoting employee happiness, writes Inc. columnist Jessica Stillman. Arthur Brooks, professor at Harvard Business School, says the happiest employees "feel like they're earning their success, which is to say that they're creating value with their lives and with their work lives, that their accomplishments are moving the needle and they're being recognized for those accomplishments."

Open communication about employer-sponsored benefits is good for staff engagement, and it can support recruitment and retention efforts while reducing anxiety about the cost of health care. A LegalShield survey found that nearly half of workers did not feel informed enough to make good decisions during open enrollment, but employers can improve the situation by keeping the enrollment process simple, making sure messaging is concise, customizing the content workers receive, including information about mental health care, and communicating consistently all year long.

The pay discrepancies that LGBTQ people experience, typically about 10% less than straight white men, are worse for LGBTQ people of color, nonbinary people and transgender people. Organizational efforts to reduce this gap, such as strengthening a sense of community and encouraging allies to be proactive, benefit the organization's profitability in addition to individual pay rates, writes Mary Mazzoni.

Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera emphasizes the importance of preparation in achieving success and tells his players that they alone control their "inner APE: attitude, preparation, effort." "[Y]our attitude towards things, it sets the tone for everything else you do. The better prepared you are, the better you are to handle things. And then if you give them great effort, the type of effort it gives you a chance, then you can be successful," Rivera says.