Elizabeth Mattila, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), recorded this episode of HR Voices with host Rebecca Taylor one day after a federal decision cut straight against her organization’s mission. EDF is a global environmental nonprofit of about a thousand employees, and Elizabeth leads an HR team of about 42 spread from New York and Brussels to Beijing and Jakarta.
She named two pressures on her desk. The first is morale. Staff who joined to protect the planet read the same headlines everyone else does. The second is AI, and specifically a new kind of hiring fraud. Her answers run through one idea: employees stay committed when they can see the plan, shape it, and grow inside it.
How EDF Holds Morale When the News Turns Against the Mission
On February 12, 2026, the EPA announced a final rule rescinding its 2009 endangerment finding for vehicle greenhouse gases. Elizabeth was candid about what a decision like that does inside a mission-driven organization. It takes aim at morale.
Her response is transparency about the plan. EDF was founded on science-backed data, which its advocacy teams carry to Capitol Hill to support legislation and to block harmful rules. When a setback lands, the general counsel, the president, and senior leaders hold a town hall. They name the loss plainly. Then they lay out the next move, which in this case meant the courts. Elizabeth’s summary for staff is direct: “this was a blow,” and here is what EDF is doing about it.
Bipartisanship is the second anchor. EDF recently added its first Republican board member, and the head of its separate lobbying arm wants to deepen Republican engagement. “We will work with whomever is united with us in supporting the mission,” Elizabeth said. Morale does not hold because leaders ask people to feel better. It holds because people can see the fight, and that is how EDF keeps staff engagement tied to the mission itself.
Why Fake Candidates Became an HR Problem
The second pressure came from a conversation with a cybersecurity contact. He described people posing as job candidates behind a digital disguise, getting hired, stealing data on day one, and disappearing. Rebecca pointed out that a politically charged organization is more exposed to that kind of sabotage, and Elizabeth agreed.
The pattern is documented. In 2022, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center warned of rising complaints about deepfakes and stolen personal data used to apply for remote jobs, mostly in IT and software roles. Some of those positions came with access to customer data, financial records, and proprietary information. For HR, that makes hiring integrity a data question as well as a recruiting one.
What Actually Works
Build an Elected Voice Into the Structure
EDF’s senior teams meet regularly, but Elizabeth wanted the rest of the organization heard too. In her words, “our lower level employees want to have a voice and we want them to have a voice.” So EDF formed a staff council of twenty employees from across the organization and around the world, each elected by peers. The council wrote its own charter. Elizabeth met with its representatives the day before the recording to work out how messages travel up and down.
A separate culture council works on EDF’s DEI initiatives. EDF also just received results from its annual engagement survey, which Elizabeth said show continued progress. Together these give EDF a standing channel for staff feedback.
Rebecca asked how EDF would tell a lasting concern from the topic of the moment. Elizabeth’s example was a four-day work week, a loud request for a while that then faded. Pay equity is the opposite case: a long-term want that EDF is actively addressing.
Tie Advancement to Skills Instead of Tenure
Elizabeth is also building an HR strategy around skills, and she used Rebecca as the example: five years in a role is not, on its own, a reason for promotion. Someone might spend five years in a job and not be ready, or spend one year and deserve to move up two steps. That reframes how upward mobility works: the question becomes what skills a person has gained and what the next level requires.
The model also opens sideways moves. An HR employee who wants to work on sustainable fishing can see the skills a project manager in that mission area needs. From there, courses or interim projects close the skills gap between roles. Elizabeth expects that kind of published career path to help EDF hold on to its people and attract new ones, because the opportunities are visible.
Run Pay Equity Analysis on Demand
EDF used to produce one pay equity analysis a year. Elizabeth compared it to a new car: “As soon as you drive it off the lot, it starts depreciating in value.” People leave, new people are hired, and the study is accurate only the moment it runs. EDF has since brought in a software platform that lets the team run pay equity studies whenever it wants.
The change is about trust as much as accuracy. Elizabeth tied it to the organization EDF wants to be: equitable, fair, and a place people want to work.
Where Employee Relations Fits
Every mechanism Elizabeth described produces information: council input, survey results, morale after a hard news day, and pay data. Telling a pattern from a one-off, the challenge Rebecca remembered from years in HR, is what ER teams face daily.
That gets easier when concerns are documented consistently instead of scattered across inboxes and meeting notes. ER teams that use their data to spot patterns early can act while an issue is still a budding idea, to borrow Rebecca’s image. An all-in-one platform for employee relations teams gives People leaders one view across a workforce spread as widely as EDF’s.
Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Voice at EDF
It is a peer-elected body of twenty employees from across EDF’s global workforce. The council wrote its own charter and works with leadership on carrying messages between staff and senior teams, so employees below the leadership level have a formal voice.
She relies on transparency about the response. Senior leaders hold a town hall, acknowledge the loss plainly, and explain what EDF will do next, including taking the fight to court. Staff see a plan instead of being asked to cheer up.
An annual study goes stale quickly. Employees leave and new hires join, so the results are accurate only on the day they run. EDF now uses a software platform to run pay equity studies whenever it needs them.
It means promotions follow skills rather than years in the role. Employees can see which skills the next level or a different team requires, then build them through courses or interim projects, including moves into EDF’s mission work.
They can turn a new hire into a data breach. Elizabeth heard of impostors getting hired and stealing data right away, and the FBI has warned about deepfakes and stolen identities used to apply for remote jobs with data access.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Elizabeth Mattila’s framing is simple. These are great people, and they want a place that makes them feel appreciated. “We all want to feel appreciated,” she said, and every initiative she described gives that idea a concrete form.
Voice comes through an elected council. Growth comes through visible skills. Fairness comes through pay data that stays current. None of it waits on a friendlier policy climate, which is the lesson for any People team facing pressure it cannot control.
See how AllVoices helps People teams hear employees in every office and act on what they raise.
