A new software engineer named Rishabh joined a fast-growing healthcare technology company in Chicago.

Throughout his life, he had gotten used to hearing his name shortened, avoided, or mispronounced entirely during introductions, meetings, and onboarding experiences. But this time was different.

As part of the company’s new employee onboarding process, HR sent him a welcome email that included a setup link for his personal MyNamePlayer profile. Within minutes, he recorded the correct pronunciation of his name in his own voice and added it to his email signature, Microsoft Teams profile, and onboarding directory.

On his first Monday morning video call, something unexpected happened. Every single person on the call pronounced his name correctly. Not awkwardly. Not hesitantly. Correctly. The hiring manager even opened the meeting by saying: “We wanted to make sure you felt welcomed here from day one.”

What might seem small to some people completely changed the tone of his first week. Instead of feeling like “the new guy with the difficult name,” he immediately felt seen, respected, and included.

A few months later, the company expanded MyNamePlayer across all departments after realizing it improved not just inclusion, but communication confidence, employee engagement, and team connection in a highly multicultural workforce.