At Invite Your Parents To Work Day, Parents Finally Understand What (the Heck) Their Grown Children Do at Assured Allies
Ten years ago, in 2013, LinkedIn launched Bring in Your Parents Day, an effort inspired by research that over a third of parents don’t understand what their adult children do at work. Here at Assured Allies, we have often felt this gap most poignantly, especially because our parents and grandparents are precisely the demographic that our company is inspired to serve! And so it was in a spirit of hoped-for understanding and intergenerational bonding that our Tel-Aviv office recently invited all parents and grandparents to come to our first ever “Invite Your Parents to Work Day”, so they could see where their adult children go to work, meet some of their colleagues, and gain an understanding of what Assured Allies is all about.
To be honest, everyone was a little nervous about whether this day would be a success. Would parents come away with greater understanding—or greater confusion? Explaining what our company does is not for the faint of heart.
Let me explain. This difficulty is certainly not the fault of our company mission. “Make Successful Aging Accessible to All” continues to succeed as a start-up mission that draws passionate and hardworking employees, partners, and investors to join our efforts. And it’s a mission that any staff member can proudly share with their parents or grandparents: “Hey mom, we are dedicated to making your life better!” Or, as stated in the tagline for our latest product for adults 55+, NeverStop, we “Make Later, Greater!”
That part is easy. But explaining the “how” and the “what” of our work can lead even the best of us into a maze of words with no clear exit strategy. Even if someone knows what insurtech means, they then have to grok machine learning, predictive analytics, and actuarial modeling. And that’s just the quantitative side. Our products also interface directly with older adults and combine human coaching, motivational interviewing, medical expertise, evidence-based interventions, and a growing ecosystem of providers and partners. The interdisciplinary and collaborative complexity of it all is a big part of why most of us love working here, but it also makes for a difficult elevator pitch. It’s no wonder that some of us direct people to watch this video instead of trying to explain it all.
So, how did our Invite your Parents to Work Day go? We are proud to announce that it went well, beyond-our-wildest-dreams well (and the food was delicious). Any snarkiness about high-tech industry stereotypes (the de rigueur exposed concrete walls and pitcher of vegan milk at the coffee counter were noted) evaporated quickly once co-founders Afik Gal and Roee Nahir began their presentations. They each gave a clear helicopter view of what our company does, and delved deep into the nuts and bolts of how things work.
As the morning wore on, you could see the light bulbs go off. Ah! Assured Allies is trying to create a kind of operating system of Successful Aging, a new platform that draws in many players to create something new and innovative, a whole ecosystem for older adults that provides financial security, reduces premature decline, and improves the odds of thriving and doing what one loves to do long into the future.
Our consumer research director, Michal Herz, who herself gave a fascinating talk about how siblings negotiate caregiving for older family members, noticed that “parents really felt welcomed and thought the day was carefully planned. It didn’t hurt that the chairs were comfortable and the food healthy and tasty.”
VP of Human Resources Michal Shahal, whose brainchild the day was, reflected, “Parents were so excited to hear words of praise about their children and to understand their day-to-day jobs. There was a lovely range of ages in the room—some parents were the same age as staff, while others were grandparents in their 90s.
“We won twice conducting this event—our employees had an opportunity to show their parents how relevant our mission is to their lives, and everyone expanded their social circle by meeting face-to-face. I could smell pride in the air throughout this event,” Shahal continued. “Proud parents, proud employees, proud bosses. We will definitely host this event in our Boston office.”
Parents’ response to the event says it all:
Thank you so much for the special evening and all of you efforts. It was really heartwarming and I feel like I gained tools and power for life.
You allowed us, the parents, a glance into the future at our lives a few years from now, and gave us the tools to think today how we want our lives to look later, when things may be more complicated or challenging.
I was so happy to learn what each of you do and feel the sense of community (or family) you have built here. It gave us as parents a feeling that we are part of your wonderful efforts.
In sum, Invite Your Parents to Work Day was a resounding success, and worth the effort. The encouragement of our parents and families and their pride in our work only stoke further our collective passion to Make Successful Aging Accessible to All. And when we pick up the phone to answer our parent’s question, “How did your day go?” we have a lot more to talk about beyond “Fine.”
