Explore every episode of the podcast Beyond the Paycheck
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What 50% benefits renewals mean for your paycheck | 08 sept. 2026 | 00:23:26 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Chuck's path through 30 years of HR 03:05 A first paycheck at Shaw Industries and where the money went 05:00 Payroll errors are same day emergencies 06:55 The spouse is often the real benefits decision maker 07:45 Supporting the whole person without wasting benefits spend 09:30 The total rewards play that won over a union 12:05 The benefits Armageddon: renewals up 15 to 50% 15:35 Fully insured, self insured, and the stop loss squeeze 16:55 Financial wellbeing and a company's fiduciary duty 21:10 Staying current with brokers and peer networks Takeaways Benefits renewal costs are rising 15% to 50% this year while US wage increases sit around 3 to 3.5%, and the usual fixes of switching carriers and raising deductibles are running out of road. Payroll errors are same-day emergencies, not next-cycle fixes, because employees living paycheck to paycheck face immediate rent, mortgage, and late-fee consequences. The spouse or partner is often the real benefits decision maker, so open enrollment communication should reach the household through home mailers and sessions partners can attend. Total rewards transparency changes behavior: showing employees exactly what the company spends on their benefits won a union over to company coverage. Companies carry a true fiduciary responsibility for retirement money, from lowering 401(k) fees to educating employees on the real cost of loans and hardship withdrawals. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| What a culture program did that a 10% raise for 100,000 workers couldn't | 03 sept. 2026 | 00:25:51 | |
Summary How do you make a case for people programs when the spreadsheet won't back you up? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Kyle Taylor, Head of HR at Revature, about the one word definition of strategy he brings to every compensation conversation, the pendulum effect that quietly teaches employees to stop reading their own bonus plan, and what DHL funded that most companies only talk about. Taylor shares how DHL tied employee survey scores to every people leader's incentive plan, how a culture program did what a 10 percent raise across 100,000 frontline workers could not, and why he plants a flag with a pivot condition instead of asking for an open ended budget. Along the way: the paper route that never paid, the escalation committee for employees with no local advocate, and the AI shift he thinks HR leaders are least prepared for. A conversation for HR and total rewards leaders who have to sell an investment before they can prove it. Chapters 00:00 Introduction, Revature, and the hire, train, deploy model 02:30 A paper route, a missing paycheck, and a lesson in getting it in writing 03:45 Strategy is tradeoffs, and most comp decisions hide them 05:05 The escalation committee for associates who fall through the cracks 07:15 What DHL got right, employee survey scores in every manager's bonus 09:00 Teaching 100,000 people why the package matters 11:30 Making the case for engagement when the spreadsheet won't 14:25 The bonus pendulum and the seven goal trap 17:55 Financial wellbeing at the individual and population level 20:30 The AI manifesto and the shift HR isn't ready for Takeaways -Strategy is just tradeoffs, and the job of HR in a compensation conversation is to make those tradeoffs visible so the decision gets made eyes open rather than by instinct. -Bonus plans swing on a pendulum, from revenue to gross profit to contribution and back, and from two big KPIs to seven small ones, until the plan stops moving the needle entirely. -The real cost of an annually shifting bonus plan is not plan design, it is that employees learn to tune out, and compensation feels personal in a way that other policy does not. -DHL made employee survey scores part of the incentive plan for every leader with direct reports, which turned engagement results from an unread report into something leaders competed over. -Ask for a bounded bet instead of a belief system: set provable assumptions, plant a flag on what improvement looks like, and commit to pivoting if it does not land. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyletaylor-1/ Website: https://www.revature.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Game Boy rule: how DaBella teaches delayed gratification at work | 01 sept. 2026 | 00:20:43 | |
Summary Jeremy Stick, CHRO at DaBella, joins host Kelsey Willock Jones on Beyond the Paycheck to trace a line from his first paycheck, $2.35 an hour washing dishes in a junior high cafeteria, to the way he builds benefits education and development strategy for twenty six hundred employees across twenty eight states. The conversation covers why he trains people so they can leave and then treats them well enough to stay, how he uses regrettable turnover to make the financial case for people programs when the spreadsheet does not obviously support it, and why the moment someone gets a raise is the single best moment to talk to them about money. Along the way he unpacks how he takes the fear out of high deductible plans and HSAs with a simple Excel breakdown, a wellness program that went sideways, and why he thinks the return to office shift is going to trigger a talent war most HR leaders are underestimating. Built for CHROs, HR leaders, and total rewards teams who want practical language for defending people investments and teaching financial wellness in a workforce focused on right now. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:42 Meet Jeremy Stick, CHRO at DaBella 01:52 The first paycheck and the first Game Boy 02:53 Why delayed gratification drives benefits education 04:11 Stumbling into HR from educational psychology 06:02 Train them so they can leave 07:02 Measuring regrettable turnover 09:14 A wellness program that spiraled 11:10 Taking the fear out of HSAs and 401(k)s 13:56 Lifestyle creep and the raise conversation 16:20 The return to office shift 19:12 My name is Jeremy, not HR Takeaways -Train and develop people so they could leave, then treat them well enough that they stay, and call it a graduation when the next step genuinely is not available internally. -Track regrettable turnover as its own line, then price the six month lag of three months to backfill plus three months to ramp, including the load it shifts onto remaining employees. -Take the emotion out of benefits by showing the math, breaking down premiums, a worst case out of pocket cost, HSA contributions, and tax deferment in a simple spreadsheet. -Catch employees at the raise, because the highest leverage financial advice is to keep spending where it was rather than scaling it to the new salary. -A 401(k) is a time horizon problem before it is a knowledge problem, so frame it as the Game Boy later instead of the candy now. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremystick/ Website: https://www.dabella.us
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Start With a Smile: Why Saving $2,000 on an Offer Costs You More | 27 août 2026 | 00:20:46 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Welcome and introduction 01:45 From frontline sales to total rewards 03:05 First paycheck and a first lesson in money 04:15 Start them with a smile 06:15 Flexibility as the most valuable benefit 10:15 A wellbeing experiment that backfired 13:10 Financial stress as a business issue 15:50 HSAs and financial education at Hays 17:55 The shift to healthcare savers 20:15 Final thoughts beyond the paycheck Takeaways -Flexibility is one of the most valuable benefits an organization can offer because it gives employees more capacity in their lives without adding cost to the business. -Financial stress is a business issue disguised as a personal issue, affecting engagement, productivity, retention, and wellbeing. -HSAs are among the most underutilized and least understood financial vehicles, especially for younger workers, and can build long-term wealth when funded early and invested. -The next five to 10 years will bring a shift toward helping employees become healthcare savers rather than just healthcare consumers as traditional plan costs become unsustainable. -Year-round communication, auto-enrollment, and easy enrollment are what turn benefits from November decisions into tools employees actually use. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| When the Best Benefits Can't Be Justified by a Spreadsheet | 25 août 2026 | 00:28:17 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Introduction and meet Ann Meyers Piccirillo 01:45 A paper route and a first paycheck spent on candy 03:30 Opening doors for a seasonal workforce 06:45 Telehealth and building a cafeteria plan 09:45 Grandparent leave and meeting people where they are 12:00 Strategic ROI vs the spreadsheet 14:45 The benefits experiment nobody used 18:15 Positioning back office teams as revenue drivers 21:45 AI as a coworker, people as the differentiator 25:15 Tap yourself: don't wait for permission Takeaways -Strategic ROI belongs alongside quantitative ROI: benefits like grandparent leave cost money and return nothing measurable, yet convert into productivity, loyalty, and referrals over time. -Fight for the benefits you believe in before the financial return shows up, because strategic return translates into financial return. -A concierge discount healthcare package went essentially unused for two years because employees didn't want to be their own benefits broker; they wanted a traditional, trusted network model. -Negative feedback is the clearest signal you'll get: people speak up loudly about what they don't like, and that clarity is shaping the next iteration of the benefits plan. -For seasonal and hourly workers locked out of traditional coverage, a cafeteria-style plan anchored in telehealth plus validated point solutions can close the healthcare gap. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The $20 Million Benefits Investment Employees Forgot in a Year | 20 août 2026 | 00:24:50 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Introduction and meet Eric Gutierrez 02:45 Inside Point B and the consulting transformation 04:15 Band camp, a Chevy Camaro, and a first paycheck 05:40 A meritocracy worldview and controlling your destiny 07:30 The war for talent and protecting DNA roles 10:10 Beyond programs: the work environment as the value proposition 12:55 Return on employee sentiment vs the spreadsheet 14:30 The $20 million healthcare premium investment 17:05 The financial wellness hot take: a living wage first 20:35 The AI shift HR isn't ready for Takeaways -Once pay passes a threshold, culture, challenging work, and a path for advancement matter as much as comp and benefits, yet in too many companies the work environment happens by accident. -Return on employee sentiment belongs alongside financial ROI when making the case for people investments the spreadsheet can't obviously support. -A $20 million healthcare premium investment at a thin-margin firm was forgotten by employees within a year, but leaders retold the story for years, proving that costly people decisions pay out in lasting lore. -Financial wellness training is no substitute for a living wage: if grocery bills outpace paychecks, budgeting classes and 401(k) education don't matter. -Even in an employer-friendly market, the war for a company's DNA roles never pauses; rest on your laurels and you'll be chasing that talent externally even more. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Financial Wellness Pilot That Cut Turnover From 50% to 14% | 18 août 2026 | 00:20:20 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Introduction and meet Catherine Johnson 02:00 Inside Travis Credit Union's workforce 03:15 A paper route, a bicycle, and the meaning of a paycheck 05:00 Supporting the whole employee at Travis 08:15 Where companies fall short on benefits 10:15 The financial wellness pilot that contributed to lower turnover from 50% - 14%. 12:30 Pitching HR investments like product tests 13:05 The $5,250 tuition benefit nobody used 15:15 Staying current and listening for unexpected benefits 17:05 The personalized benefits shift HR isn't ready for Takeaways
Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Benefits Are Table Stakes, Education Is the Differentiator | 13 août 2026 | 00:24:09 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck 00:45 Kelsey's path through full stack HR 02:00 A Best Buy first job and a first paycheck saved in a CD 04:45 Start with the employee value proposition 06:25 Benefits are table stakes 07:30 White glove moments only small companies can deliver 08:40 Mapping the employee lifecycle for moments that matter 10:30 Making the case when the spreadsheet says no 13:30 A benefits rollout that went sideways 19:05 The AI generalist and the accountability question Takeaways -Benefits are table stakes, not a differentiator. Most employees are not educated about the benefits they already have, so education often beats expansion. -Map the employee lifecycle the way you'd map a customer lifecycle, then invest in the moments that matter. Your demographics tell you where those moments will be. -Smaller companies win on white glove care: handling edge cases directly with the broker instead of routing people through tickets and multi-day waits. -AI is pushing HR toward lean teams of generalists with many specialties, a profile that is rare, hard to develop, and even harder to compensate fairly. -Before automating HR work, decide who is accountable when the AI is wrong, and remember that removing entry-level work removes the path the next generation needs to build specialties. Connect with the Guest Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Benefit Personas: Making Rewards Human Across 15,000 Employees | 11 août 2026 | 00:19:54 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Introduction and meet Joshua Lemon 02:20 Inside Resideo's global workforce 03:10 First jobs, first paychecks, and an economics lens on money 05:20 Supporting the whole person across 30 countries 06:50 Why total reward statements fall short 09:20 The grocery receipt problem and benefit personas 11:15 Making the case when the spreadsheet doesn't support it 14:35 Financial wellness by design at Resideo 17:05 Paying for output and the future of AI in rewards 18:45 The Speed of Your Dependencies and where to find Josh Takeaways -Total reward statements keep value abstract; employees experience benefits through real moments like a $25 copay, so messaging has to meet them there. -Benefit personas, borrowed from product design, let rewards teams communicate in the voice of each employee group and life stage. -The four pillars of attracting, retaining, motivating, and engaging employees make the case for benefits a business case alone can't justify. -Financial wellness can be built into plan design itself, like Resideo's 7% dollar for dollar 401(k) match and its intentional no loan policy. -AI's uneven multiplying effect, where one person gets 50% more productive and another 10x, will push compensation from rewarding presence toward rewarding output. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Building Rewards Programs That Serve the Business, Not Just HR | 06 août 2026 | 00:24:47 | |
Summary What happens when companies raid their benefits budgets to fund AI initiatives? On Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Cristabel Lim, Senior Director of Total Rewards and Strategic Programs at Epicor, about why benefit stability creates the psychological safety that performance depends on. Cristabel shares Epicor's philosophy of never overreacting to market volatility, makes the case for trusting your gut on investments like benefit fairs that no spreadsheet can justify, and breaks down the real AI question for benefits teams: build, buy, or don't use at all. From a $400 first paycheck spent on a digital camera to an employee assistance fund where colleagues support each other through hardship, this conversation is built for HR, total rewards, and people leaders navigating volatile markets. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck 01:15 Nine years at Epicor from Monterrey to the Bay Area 02:30 A $400 first paycheck and a digital camera 04:15 Growing up in a family that talked about money 05:30 The four pillars of benefits at Epicor 07:15 Why cutting benefits to fund AI backfires 09:00 Benefit stability and psychological safety 10:45 Trusting your gut when the ROI isn't on the spreadsheet 15:15 Build, buy, or don't use: evaluating AI in benefits 20:45 The rising cost of benefits and a final message Takeaways -Benefit stability creates psychological safety. Companies that pulled benefit dollars to fund AI initiatives are now seeing dissatisfaction and turnover, while steady offerings tell employees the ground under them is solid. -Don't overspend when the market is hot and don't take away in a downturn. People are what make the products and services, and they notice when that stops being true. -Some of the highest-impact benefits, like benefit fairs and human connection, never show ROI on a spreadsheet. Trust your gut, start small, and reevaluate frequently. -The real AI question in benefits is build, buy, or don't use. Who supports the product and who owns data security matter more than what AI can theoretically do. -Cut through the AI noise with peer conversations. What has actually worked for other practitioners beats what vendors promise. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristabellim Website: https://www.epicor.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Building Total Rewards From the Ground Up | 04 août 2026 | 00:20:44 | |
Summary What does a first paycheck spent on school supplies have to do with designing benefits for a 2,500-person global cybersecurity company? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones sits down with Zena Stephens Joy, Associate Director of Total Rewards at Fortra, to trace how her money story became a rewards philosophy: meet employees' basic needs first, then build from there. Zena shares how she makes the business case for financial wellbeing programs, how Fortra backs benefits the spreadsheet can't directly justify, and the honest story of a benefit launch that flopped because of poor communication. It's a candid conversation for HR and total rewards leaders on connecting pay, wellbeing, and performance. Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck 01:45 Zena's journey into total rewards 03:45 Inside Fortra 04:40 A first job at 16 and a paycheck spent on necessities 06:45 Building holistic wellbeing at Fortra 08:55 Measuring whether a program is working 10:00 Backing benefits the spreadsheet can't justify 12:55 The business case for financial wellbeing 15:50 The benefit launch that flopped 18:45 Pay transparency and the conversations leaders aren't ready for Takeaways -If employees' basic needs aren't met, or they fear they won't be, it shows up in their work. Total rewards has to start with necessities before anything else. -Financial wellbeing and work quality are directly correlated. Financially stressed employees are distracted employees. -To win budget and buy-in, translate care into business language: high-quality work requires an environment where employees can be high quality. -Benefits without an obvious ROI, like expanded EAP coverage and financial wellness webinars, still earn their keep through utilization, engagement, and trust. -A great benefit nobody understands is a failed benefit. What you communicate, when you communicate it, and the enablement you provide determine adoption. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenastephens/ Website: https://www.fortra.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Designing Total Rewards That Actually Move the Needle | 30 juil. 2026 | 00:20:10 | |
Summary What happens when a company treats employee financial health as mission critical instead of a perk? Christopher Forbeck, Director of Total Rewards at NorthWestern Energy, joins host Kelsey Willock Jones to share how a sales career, two master's degrees, and a moral compass check led him to HR, and why financial security now sits on his C-suite's agenda. He breaks down where most wellbeing programs fall short by checking some pillars but not all of them, how NorthWestern built a holistic system spanning Personify Health, a double-funded 401(k), and one-on-one financial consulting for employees and their families, and why AI is pushing total rewards out of the on-demand knowledge base role and into true strategic partnership. For HR, benefits, and total rewards leaders ready to claim a seat at the strategy table. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:15 From sales to HR: an unexpected pivot 03:10 A paperboy's first paycheck 05:10 Why financial health is mission critical 07:45 Supporting the whole person at NorthWestern Energy 09:25 Where most wellbeing programs fall short 11:00 Making the case when the spreadsheet says no 13:05 Reaching the field workforce through their families 15:55 AI and the rise of the strategic total rewards leader 18:25 Chris's final message: be the strategic partner Takeaways -Financial health is mission critical: financially insecure employees drive attrition, show up distracted, and carry stress that ultimately reaches the product the organization delivers. -Most employers check off some wellbeing pillars but not all of them; real impact requires a holistic system across financial, mental, social, and physical wellbeing for employees and their families. -Make the investment case by ingraining wellbeing into company philosophy first, then backing it with metrics over time; it is not an immediate return, and leadership needs to hear that upfront. -Engagement is individual: what is meaningful to one employee may not be meaningful to another, and reaching the significant others of a field-based workforce can unlock participation that direct communication never will. -AI is absorbing the on-demand answer desk role total rewards has historically played, demanding the function step up as a strategic partner; the timing is ripe, and those who embrace it have sky's-the-limit potential. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cforbeckmba/ Website: https://www.northwesternenergy.com/
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Rethinking the Benefits Package Employees Actually Use | 28 juil. 2026 | 00:17:16 | |
Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock Jones sits down with Stephanie Elliott, Director of Benefits and Compensation at SGA Dental Partners, to unpack why so many benefits programs go unused. Stephanie traces her path from an insurance company mail room to leading benefits, and explains how the death of the 40-year career made benefits the real retention lever, why piecemeal benefits strategies fail where holistic ones succeed, and how financial stress quietly undermines the workforce when a 3% raise doesn't cover rising costs. She also shares the story of removing a 48-hour system lockout for employees returning from leave, her go-to resource for staying ahead of changing regulations, and the shifts in the workweek, elder care, and niche benefits that most HR leaders aren't ready for. It's a practical listen for benefits leaders, HR practitioners, and anyone rethinking what keeps people. Chapters 00:00 Meet Stephanie Elliott, Director of Benefits and Compensation at SGA Dental Partners 02:30 A first paycheck and a $300 stereo 03:15 Why nobody stays 40 years anymore 04:30 Where companies get benefits right and where they fall short 06:00 Financial wellness beyond the 401(k) 07:45 How financial stress hits the workforce 08:15 Removing the 48-hour lockout barrier 11:00 Making the case when the spreadsheet says no 14:15 The shifts HR leaders aren't ready for 16:00 Listen to your associates Takeaways -The 40-year employee is gone; people change jobs every three to four years, and benefits, not salary, have become the real retention lever. -Most benefits strategies fail because they're built piecemeal; without one holistic view across mental, physical, and financial health, even good programs go unused. -Financial stress impacts the workforce severely; a 3% annual raise doesn't cover rising costs, and most employees don't understand what their 401(k) can actually do for them. -Low-enrollment benefits like pet insurance can still be immensely valuable; a benefit doesn't need mass adoption to matter to the people who use it. -Listen to your associates; if you don't ask what they really want, you'll implement benefits nobody uses. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-elliott-5533831a/ Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Building Total Rewards From the Ground Up | 23 juil. 2026 | 00:22:34 | |
Summary Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:45 First job and a first paycheck given to his parents 03:15 How a money story shapes a total rewards leader 04:30 Balancing rewards across more than 20 countries 07:30 Fairness as a clear and consistent system 09:45 A $1.6M investment in internal equity 12:15 The 80/20 rule and the experiment that didn't travel 14:15 Financial health and caring for aging parents 17:30 The shift HR leaders aren't ready for 20:00 Why executives keep investing in people Takeaways -A total rewards leader is a steward of the employees, holding company profitability and employee reality in mind at the same time, because a salary is someone's rent, food, or a dream they are fighting for. -Fairness is not everyone getting what they want; it is a clear, consistent, defensible system that employees can understand even when they disagree with an outcome. -Design global programs for the 80%, then accommodate the 20% exception with localized benefits like a richer 401(k) match, student loan repayment, or extended parental leave. -Clarity is a retention strategy: when employees understand the why behind pay decisions, confusion disappears, expectations get set, and the culture feels safe and stable. -One-size-fits-all compensation is ending; the next era requires individualized solutions and generational communication so employees actually understand and use what's offered. Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Why Financial Stress Is a Safety Problem | 21 juil. 2026 | 00:14:40 | |
Summary What does an employee working a second job actually tell you about your workplace? Sarah Cornelio, Total Rewards Manager at Urban Engineers, joins host Kelsey Wheelock to make the case that financial stress is a burnout and safety indicator most HR leaders miss. She shares the "never let the first answer be no" vendor philosophy that surfaced a long-term care benefit her team never went looking for, her framework for measuring the non-scale victories engagement surveys can't capture, and why focus groups are one of the most valuable tools in her 20-year HR toolbox. For total rewards, benefits, and HR leaders who want programs that meet employees where they are. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and welcome 00:45 Sarah's 20 years across HR 01:45 First paychecks and the money story behind a benefits career 03:45 Never letting the first answer be no 05:15 AI tools and keeping pulse on new offerings 07:15 Non-scale victories and measuring what surveys miss 08:45 Focus groups and listening to real struggles 10:15 The sandwich generation and life-stage benefits 12:00 Financial stress, second jobs, and burnout risk 13:45 What keeps programs from sitting idle Takeaways -Never let the first answer be no: taking every vendor call surfaced a long-term care insurance benefit Urban Engineers never went looking for, meaningful to employees at both ends of the age spectrum. -The best benefits intelligence is often already paid for: brokers, retirement carriers, and peer surveys across employee-owned firms reveal what is working before a pitch ever lands. -Programs create non-scale victories: impact that never shows in survey data. Capture it by ending every employee interaction with "What can we be doing better to support you?" -Focus groups reach the people who never fill out the survey, turning engagement scores into named, real struggles HR can act on. -Employees working multiple jobs are a burnout and safety signal, not a policy problem. Remove barriers to second jobs or pay a living wage, and treat sustained financial stress as workplace risk. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cornelio-82470672/ Website: https://www.urbanengineers.com/
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| 400 Sign-Ups in a Week: The Hidden Demand for Financial Wellness | 16 juil. 2026 | 00:21:06 | |
Summary What does a 400-signup week reveal about your workforce? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey talks with Ernie Florkowski, Director of Benefits at Element Materials Technology, about the overwhelming employee response to a free financial coaching benefit, how his team designed an HR help desk AI that routes people to answers instead of generating them, and why he believes Amazon-style personalization is the benefits shift most HR leaders aren't ready for. A conversation for CHROs, benefits leaders, and anyone rethinking what employees need beyond pay. Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:45 Meet Ernie Florkowski and Element Materials Technology 2:40 First paychecks and Air Jordans 4:50 Keeping the big three benefits affordable 6:10 Financial coaching and 400 signups in one week 8:20 The wellness program that caught cancer early 12:45 A culture where health and family come first 14:00 AI in HR: tool, not threat 16:15 Staying current through networking 18:25 The next shift: personalized benefits Takeaways -Financial stress in the workforce is bigger than it looks: a free financial coaching benefit announced in a single company email drew 400 signups in its first week. -Affordable core benefits are a strategy, not an accident: Element keeps medical, dental, and vision under $800 a year for employee-only coverage across 27 states. -Reducing money stress at home shows up at work as focus, attendance, and better performance. -AI in HR works best when it routes employees to answers instead of generating them, avoiding the liability of confidently wrong responses. -Benefits are heading toward Amazon-style personalization, with carriers proactively reaching out based on individual health signals. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernieflorkowski/ Website: https://www.element.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Why Paying People More Doesn't Make Them Work Harder | 14 juil. 2026 | 00:25:19 | |
Summary In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones sits down with Jonathan Taddeo, Director of Total Rewards at Syniverse, the company powering intercarrier text messaging across 24 countries. Jonathan explains why pay is a hygiene factor rather than a motivator, why recognition is the most underused lever in employee engagement, and why the EU Pay Transparency Directive is only the tip of the iceberg for total rewards leaders. Along the way, he shares how a Division I swimming career shaped his money story, how Syniverse wins executive buy in for wellbeing programs by pairing data with the right story, and what it takes to keep pay fair across a global workforce. This conversation is for HR and total rewards leaders, people managers, and anyone who wants to understand what really drives engagement beyond the paycheck. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:15 From talent acquisition to total rewards 01:55 Inside the world's most connected company 03:45 A money story shaped by athletics 05:45 Financial wellbeing at Syniverse 09:15 The recognition gap 10:55 Why pay is a hygiene factor 13:15 Making the case with data 15:35 Fair pay and job architecture 21:35 The pay transparency wave Takeaways -Pay is a hygiene factor: it has to be fair and competitive, but money alone doesn't motivate people, and for creative work financial incentives can actually backfire. -Recognition is the biggest gap in employee engagement, and it doesn't have to be monetary; regular, frequent recognition from leaders and peers is what moves performance. -The EU Pay Transparency Directive is only the tip of the iceberg; US total rewards leaders should prepare now for right to information requests and expanding state laws. -Executive buy in comes from pairing data with the right story, like Syniverse's wellness incentive that lowers long term benefits costs by 20 to 30 percent by catching health issues early. -Fair pay starts with job architecture that matches market benchmarks and internal equity checks, so offers are anchored in data rather than gut feeling. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-taddeo/
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Eliminating Delays and Errors in Your Total Rewards System | 09 juil. 2026 | 00:22:31 | |
Summary What does it take to rebuild salary planning in eight weeks? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willcok Jones talks with Nicholas Lassalle, Director of Total Rewards at QinetiQ, about launching an SAP compensation module in two months, why the ROI of people investments shows up in the employee experience rather than the spreadsheet, and why so many employees leave free money on the table by misunderstanding their benefits. Nicholas shares how automating benefits systems, 401(k) administration, and HSA file feeds eliminated the delays and errors that hit employees directly, and makes the case for over-communication, fast response times, and real benefits education. A practical conversation for HR, total rewards, and people leaders who want to invest in employees even when the numbers aren't obvious. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Meet Nicholas Lassalle and his total rewards career 02:30 First job and first paycheck 04:15 Supporting the whole person and the eight week SAP launch 06:45 Why over-communication wins 08:15 Benefits that remove barriers: mental health and Medicare 10:15 Responsiveness as a total rewards benefit 13:15 Making the case when the spreadsheet says no 17:15 Financial wellbeing and money left on the table 20:15 The shift ahead: AI and system integration Takeaways -A full compensation module launch can happen in eight weeks when automation replaces spreadsheets and communication is built into the rollout from day one. -The ROI of people investments is rarely monetary; it shows up as fewer paycheck errors, faster HSA deposits, and 401(k) contributions that post on time. -Manual HR processes cost employees directly, from lost 401(k) interest to delayed access to money they need. -Employees leave free money on the table by under-contributing to matched 401(k) plans and underusing the HSA's triple tax advantage. -Over-communication, multiple touchpoints, and a 24 to 48 hour response policy turn total rewards into a trust-building function, not just an administrative one. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-lassalle/
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Empathy, karma, and the coming skills based workforce | 07 juil. 2026 | 00:28:01 | |
Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock sits down with Sarah Gonzalez, SVP of Total Rewards at Switch, the hyperscaler building the data centers powering today's AI boom. Sarah traces her path from a self described "late bloomer" who fell in love with compensation, the place where the math nerds of HR end up, to a leader scaling total rewards inside a high growth company. Drawing on her own early experience of financial strain as an Army spouse, she makes the case that great total rewards leaders never forget what instability feels like. She challenges the industry habit of stacking benefit programs that reach only a fraction of the workforce, argues for benefits as fluid as the people who use them, and explains how a core value built on karma drives real retention. It's a candid, practical conversation for HR and total rewards leaders, people leaders, and anyone rethinking how companies support the whole person.
00:00 Introduction 01:15 Finding the place where the math nerds of HR go 03:35 Scaling total rewards inside a high growth company 04:55 First job at Sbarro's and the truth about that first paycheck 06:55 How a money story shapes the way you lead 09:35 Supporting the whole person without falling into the program trap 12:15 Building benefits as fluid as the people who use them 15:25 Getting back on the ground to listen to frontline workers 17:35 Why support and output are connected, and the karma value 21:35 Financial wellbeing, killing the shame, and the skills based future
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-gonzales-wilson-ccp-phr-46165b8/ Website: https://www.switch.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| From CD changers to FICA: a head of HR on money, AI, and people | 02 juil. 2026 | 00:25:02 | |
Summary Patrick Lopez, Head of HR at CMIT Solutions, joins host Kelsey on Beyond the Paycheck for a conversation that runs from a teenager's first paycheck to the future of work in the age of AI. Patrick shares how a 10-disc CD changer and an unexpectedly small JCPenney check taught him about taxes at 16, why he still sees new hires learn that same lesson, and how his money story shaped the way he leads. From there the conversation widens: how AI has quietly crowded out the whole-person conversation about wellbeing and benefits, how HR has evolved from an admin function into the company's strategic conscience, and why, even in an uncertain market, clear communication is the benefit that matters most. It's a grounded, hopeful listen for HR leaders, people managers, and anyone thinking about financial wellbeing at work.
Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:15 From radio booth to head of HR 04:45 A first paycheck and a 10 disc CD changer 05:45 Meeting FICA: the tax lesson school skipped 07:45 How your money story shapes the way you lead 10:45 When AI drowns out the whole person conversation 13:45 The Great Resignation and the swing back to people 16:45 How HR became the company's thought leader 18:45 Putting AI to work on the ops side at CMIT 20:45 Money confidence, benefits, and the power of communication Takeaways - Financial confidence starts with the basics. Patrick learned about FICA and take-home pay from his first JCPenney check at 16, and he still sees college grads ask the same question. Helping people understand their own pay stub is a small act of leadership that builds lasting trust. - AI is taking all the oxygen, and the whole-person conversation has gone quiet. The talk about wellbeing, benefits, and work-life balance that dominated the Great Resignation has been steered toward AI. Patrick expects the pendulum to swing back. - The cloud era is the cautionary tale. Fifteen years ago every leader wanted to "move to the cloud" without knowing how. AI is following the same pattern, so substance has to catch up to the ambition. - HR has become the company's conscience. The role has shifted from admin to strategic thought leader, and HR leaders are quietly building the case for keeping people at the center as AI matures. - Communication is the real benefit. Even while expanding benefits, Patrick's top rule with leadership is to communicate every decision clearly and make the team part of the process, because people can handle uncertainty when they don't feel it's being done to them. Connect with the Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmlopez/ Website: https://cmitsolutions.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Money, mind, and movement: supporting the whole employee | 30 juin 2026 | 00:17:26 | |
Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey sits down with Pam Tavilla, Head of People at Leyton, a global consulting and professional services firm. Drawing on nearly 20 years in HR, Pam makes the case that the line between work and personal life has dissolved, and that supporting employees means supporting their whole day, financial, mental, and physical. She explains why financial wellbeing is a universal need rather than a generational perk, why learning and development only works when it leads to a real career path, and what the coming shift toward personalized benefits will mean for HR leaders. It's a practical, people-first conversation for anyone who builds compensation, benefits, and growth programs.
Chapters 00:45 Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck 01:35 Meet Pam Tavilla and Leyton 02:45 Her first job and first paycheck 03:45 Supporting the whole person 06:35 Why financial wellbeing matters 08:25 Making the case when the spreadsheet won't 10:15 When training needs a destination 12:25 Staying current in HR and benefits 16:25 The coming shift to personalized benefits
Takeaways Support has to be active, not stated. Saying you back work-life balance means little unless managers actually let people step away and trust them to return refreshed. The whole person comes to work. Financial, mental, and physical health all cross into the workday, so being present and noticing the signs is part of the job. Financial wellbeing is universal. It matters across every generation because it shapes how people live and survive, and it benefits the business as much as the employee. Training needs a destination. Learning and development only pays off when it connects to a clear career path, or it becomes box-checking. Personalization is the next shift. The standard benefits package is fading in favor of equal budget and access for everyone with individual choice in how it's used. Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pam-tavilla/ Website: https://leyton.com Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Benefit Almost Nobody Uses, and Why It Pays Off | 04 juin 2026 | 00:25:07 | |
Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock sits down with Ken Wechsler, VP of Total Rewards at Akamai Technologies, to dig into why the most measurable parts of a pay package are often the least differentiating. Ken makes the case that comp is the "sexier side" of rewards but benefits are what build loyalty, that financial stress quietly destroys engagement, and that the best benefits are sometimes the ones almost nobody uses. Along the way he covers pay transparency, AI in compensation, and two financial-wellness experiments anyone can try. It's a practical listen for total rewards leaders, benefits practitioners, and anyone rethinking what actually keeps people. Chapters 00:00 Meet Ken Wechsler, VP Total Rewards at Akamai 01:30 The coin-collecting kid and his earliest money memory 03:45 First job, first car, and saving with intention 05:10 A $1,212 paycheck and what younger workers need now 07:15 Comp is the sexier side, but benefits build loyalty 10:30 Maslow, remote work, and financial wellness 12:45 When the story beats the dollar 15:00 Pay transparency: the why over the where 18:30 AI in total rewards and the human touch 21:00 The reverse pyramid and the 48-hour rule Takeaways The most visible part of a pay package, cash, is the part competitors can most easily match. Financial stress destroys engagement, so financial security is a precondition for it, not a perk beside it. A benefit can be worth keeping for the story it tells even when almost no one uses it. On pay transparency, employees care more about understanding the why than seeing the where. Use AI to do the math in comp work, but keep humans to interpret the data and make the call.
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Missing Conversation in Every Open Enrollment | 02 juin 2026 | 00:27:55 | |
Summary
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| What Do Your Employees Know About Their Retirement? | 28 mai 2026 | 00:20:43 | |
Summary In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey sits down with Tim Goodchild, Director of International Benefits at Take-Two Interactive (parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, and Zynga), to dig into what's actually broken in employee benefits. Tim's argument: the packages are often strong, but most employees don't understand what they have. With nearly 20 years in HR across AOL, the BBC, The Telegraph, and Anaplan, Tim lays out why financial wellbeing is the load-bearing pillar of any wellness program, why AI is about to flip benefits from reactive to proactive, and what it means for employers who aren't building toward that now. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Tim's background at Take-Two Interactive Takeaways
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Financial Wellness Is the Frontier of Wellbeing | 26 mai 2026 | 00:23:07 | |
Summary On Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock talks with Preet Michelson, Chief People Officer at Morgan Street Holdings and its operating company TMS, about why benefits programs break down at the communication line, not the budget line. Preet makes the case that financial wellbeing is the next frontier of workplace wellness, as overdue for normalization as physical and mental health once were. She shares concrete plays, from student loan repayment paired with mandatory coaching to a midyear, personalized total compensation statement that ends with a single number. The throughline: when people can see that a company is invested in their lives and not just their output, retention and engagement follow. Built for HR, total rewards, and financial wellness leaders.
00:00 Welcome to Beyond the Paycheck 00:50 From KPMG accountant to Chief People Officer 02:30 Inside Morgan Street Holdings, TMS, and Stanley 04:30 Her earliest memory of money: independence 07:15 Where compensation and benefits break down 09:30 Why the once-a-year rewards statement fails 11:00 Marketing benefits like a consumer brand 12:45 Student loans plus mandatory coaching 14:00 Financial wellness as the next frontier 16:50 The midyear statement nobody sends
Meet the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| How BambooHR Moved Comp Understanding From 50% to 90% With One Training | 21 mai 2026 | 00:22:46 | |
Summary One in two employees at BambooHR said they didn't understand how their compensation was determined. After a single mandatory compensation 101 training, that number flipped—nearly 90% said they now understood.
01:42 Alex's earliest money memory: $2 bills and selling Costco candy at swim lessons 04:33 How empathy for frontline workers keeps comp decisions grounded 07:50 Where compensation and benefits break down most: the understanding gap 10:30 The comp 101 training that moved understanding from 50% to 90% 13:44 The paid paid vacation bonus and milestone increases at 5, 10, 15, and 20 years 17:50 AI-driven benefits navigation: one place, one overlay, better utilization 20:01 Financial wellness as a founding principle, not an afterthought 21:08 The 30-day experiment: run a "use it" campaign on your most underutilized benefit
Connect with the Guest Company website: https://www.bamboohr.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Compensation Starts with Owning Your Value | 19 mai 2026 | 00:32:50 | |
Summary Hollie Delaney, Chief People Officer at Power Home Remodeling, shares the financial independence lesson she absorbed at age 9, her 25-year career arc from Zappos to Power, and her framework for what total compensation really means. She breaks down where employees lose financial ground, why quality-of-life math matters more than salary alone, and how Power builds benefits that actually move people. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Welcome Takeaways
Guest Links Hollie Delaney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollie-delaney-573b89a/ | |||
| Building Total Rewards Statements That Actually Change Retention | 14 mai 2026 | 00:25:03 | |
Summary
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Building a Mental Health Benefit Physicians Will Actually Use | 12 mai 2026 | 00:29:31 | |
Summary Allison is also shifting mental health support from generic EAPs to clinician-specific programs that send grief counselors on-site after traumatic patient events—because telling a burned-out ER doc to "set better boundaries" misses the entire problem.
Takeaways Connect with the Guest
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Employee Benefits Paradox: Great Programs No One Uses | 07 mai 2026 | 00:22:13 | |
Summary Melissa Zaino runs global benefits at Zayo Group, a fiber company competing with Google and Verizon. Her team serves 2,600 employees—half of them field technicians. She's also someone who once got underwater with credit cards and entered a consumer credit counseling program, an experience that still shapes how she thinks about financial stress at work. In this conversation, she explains why benefits teams are losing the plot: companies buy surgical point solutions for cancer, fertility, and weight management, then wonder why nobody uses them. The problem isn't the programs—it's the communication. Melissa's team stopped leading with vendor names and started leading with what the benefit actually does. She also shares why employee surveys matter more than ROI spreadsheets, and why AI might finally help demystify leave policies without violating PII. Timestamps 00:42 Melissa's role at Zayo Group and the makeup of a 2,600-person workforce 01:28 What a fiber company does and how Zayo competes with Google and Verizon 02:11 Melissa's earliest memory of money: quarters in Easter eggs 03:11 Her first job at Randall's Supermarkets and buying song lyric magazines 04:09 How her father's job loss during the Libya oil embargo shaped her relationship with money 05:56 Getting underwater with credit cards and entering consumer credit counseling 07:04 Why financial wellness can't just mean 401(k) matching 08:44 The point solution explosion: why employees don't know how cancer, fertility, and pharmacy carving all interact 11:18 Why benefits teams must stop leading with vendor names 12:32 How fertility and menopause benefits attract talent and show employees they're valued 15:22 Why employee survey feedback matters more than trying to nail down ROI on new programs 17:45 How Garner Health delivered hard-dollar savings by steering to top-performing providers 18:24 Melissa's prediction: AI will help demystify benefits without violating PII 21:29 Where to connect with Melissa on LinkedIn Takeaways
Connect with the guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-zaino-cebs-phr-b992b3/ Zayo Group: https://www.zayo.com Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Your Wellness Stipend Isn't Working—Here's Why | 05 mai 2026 | 00:26:30 | |
Summary A company rolls out a $200/month wellness stipend with the best of intentions. It lands in employees' paychecks alongside everything else. Nobody changes their behavior. Claims don't go down. The intent was real, but without structure, there's no return.
Company website: https://www.helloalma.com
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.VP total rewards, benefits ROI, wellness stipend design, unlimited PTO problems, flexible PTO, care navigation benefits, benefits over-saturation, pay transparency education, AI in benefits administration, employee financial wellness, total rewards strategy, benefits communication, pay equity analytics, compensation philosophy, employee value proposition, lifestyle spending accounts, parental leave automation, benefits personalization, Beyond the Paycheck podcast
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| The Compensation Issue Nobody Has Solved Yet | 30 avr. 2026 | 00:25:54 | |
Summary The Mayo Clinic once surveyed its employees and found a 17% positive perception of pay. A year later, after running better enablement and transparency sessions—without spending a single additional dollar on comp—that number climbed to 80%.
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| Why Most Benefits Programs Break the Moment They Meet Real Life | 28 avr. 2026 | 00:22:44 | |
Summary
Sponsor
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| Why Open Enrollment Isn't Where Employees Actually Use Benefits | 23 avr. 2026 | 00:23:21 | |
Summary
Company website: https://www.caci.com
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| What a Dime Jar Taught Me About Pay, Anxiety, and Employee Empathy | 23 avr. 2026 | 00:27:44 | |
Summary
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| Why Your Benefits Communications Are Still Too Complicated to Work | 23 avr. 2026 | 00:27:28 | |
Summary
Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence.
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| Why Your Benefits Strategy Is Failing Employees (And How to Fix It) | 21 avr. 2026 | 00:26:15 | |
Summary What if the secret to building a thriving workforce started with a five-year-old saving a dollar a day? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Charmion "Charm" Patton, Chief Human Resources Officer at Hillsborough County Public Schools and a 25-year HR generalist, to explore how personal money lessons shape the way leaders design benefits that actually transform lives.
See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| How Crunch Fitness Cut Part-Time Turnover 24% With One Bold Benefits Move | 16 avr. 2026 | 00:25:04 | |
What happens when you stop assuming what employees need and actually ask them? Pamela J. Brown, EVP and Head of People & Culture at Crunch Fitness, joins Beyond the Paycheck to share how she's transforming the employee experience across 550+ gym locations in six countries. From implementing a 401(k) with match after an inaugural engagement survey to making Crunch Fitness the only big-box gym offering full benefits to part-time employees — resulting in a 24% retention improvement — Pam reveals the framework behind building benefits programs that deliver measurable ROI. She opens up about her earliest money memories, the mentor who shaped how she leads, and why mental fitness training, leadership development, and creative no-cost benefits are just as critical as traditional compensation. Whether you're trying to get buy-in from senior leadership on a new pilot program or looking for hidden value in your existing vendor relationships, this episode is packed with tactical strategies you can start using this week.
[00:49] – Pam's earliest money memory and the Disneyland lesson that changed her perspective [06:00] – How personal money experiences shape her approach to total rewards [07:43] – Driving engagement and utilization: closing the loop on employee feedback [09:30] – Why Crunch Fitness offers full benefits to part-time employees [12:02] – Leadership development and mental fitness as total rewards [16:29] – Getting executive buy-in for mental health programs [18:19] – The hypothesis-test-prove framework for benefits ROI [23:43] – A 30-day experiment: unlocking hidden vendor benefits
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| Why Your Employees Are Choosing the Wrong Health Plan — And How to Fix It | 14 avr. 2026 | 00:21:06 | |
What if the biggest obstacle to your employees' financial well-being isn't their salary — it's that they don't understand what they already have? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock sits down with Erin Desrosiers, CCP, Compensation and Benefits Leader at HOK, the global architecture and design firm with 1,700+ employees across 27 offices. Erin brings over a decade of experience in compensation and benefits to an honest conversation about the affordability crisis facing today's workforce, why employees consistently choose the wrong health plan, and what companies can actually do about it. From the triple tax advantage of HSAs that most workers overlook, to why fertility benefits generate the most gratitude she's ever seen, to the "job hugging" phenomenon keeping people frozen in place — Erin doesn't shy away from the hard truths. She also makes a compelling case for something deceptively simple: just talk to your benefits team. They want to hear from you. Whether you're an HR leader designing your next open enrollment or an employee trying to stretch your paycheck further, this episode delivers practical, actionable guidance you can use starting today.
[00:35] – Erin's earliest money memory: the nickel-and-dime sibling hustle [03:10] – Why data matters more than personal opinion in comp & benefits [05:05] – Job hugging, AI anxiety, and why employees aren't moving [08:24] – Shopping for health insurance like car insurance [11:08] – The deductible conversation most adults still need [14:18] – Fertility benefits: the most appreciated offering Erin has ever provided [16:01] – Remote, hybrid, or in-office: why companies are holding to their values [18:00] – The 30-day experiment: HSAs, feedback, and advocating for yourself
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| From Cost Shift to Care Shift: Tom Armani on Value-Based Primary Care and Personalizing Benefits | 14 avr. 2026 | 00:21:29 | |
Summary High-deductible plans were meant to save money—but for many employees, they’ve created “functional uninsured” risk and delayed care that drives bigger costs later. Tom Armani, most recently Director of Global Benefits at Dayforce and a 20+ year benefits leader, unpacks how employers can reverse the affordability crisis while improving outcomes. He explains why self-funded benefits should be run like a small business, the misaligned incentives across carriers, providers, and PBMs, and how value-based advanced primary care can lower total cost of care. Tom shares a practical model he implemented—partnering with a curated marketplace of independent primary care groups with fees at risk and clinical reconciliation. He also tackles the engagement gap: why point solutions go unused, how just‑in‑time personalization (via claims and wearable data) boosts relevance, and how to do it within HIPAA using vendor-led outreach. The episode closes with actionable steps for financial wellbeing—from capturing the employer match to using HSAs/FSAs and advocacy partners—plus a call to build healthcare literacy so employees can actually navigate their plans. Timestamps [00:40] – Early money mindset: Depression-era frugality and why affordability matters [02:15] – First jobs to benefits philosophy: Understanding paycheck-to-paycheck realities [07:35] – Where benefits break down: Self-funded spend, misaligned incentives, HDHP pitfalls [10:59] – The true cost of delayed care and ER utilization [11:30] – Fixing incentives: Value-based advanced primary care and independent networks [14:45] – The engagement gap: Point solutions, personalization, and AI-driven outreach [16:15] – Doing personalization right: HIPAA, vendor-led targeting, and data privacy [19:10] – Healthcare literacy for new workers and navigation challenges [21:05] – Next best actions: Employer match, HSAs/FSAs, emergency savings, and advocacy Takeaways - Run benefits like a P&L—interrogate incentives across insurers, providers, and PBMs. - Reduce overexposure from HDHPs; restore first-dollar coverage for prevention and primary care to avoid downstream costs. - Pilot value-based advanced primary care with independent groups and at-risk fees tied to outcomes. - Close the engagement gap with personalized, just-in-time outreach powered by claims/biometric data—delivered by privacy-compliant vendors. - Build healthcare literacy and offer advocacy so employees can navigate networks, prior auth, and plan design. - Coach “next best actions”: capture the employer match, fund HSAs/FSAs with pre-tax dollars, create an emergency savings buffer, and ask for help early.
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations
With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Why You'll Compare TVs but Not Doctors: The Baldwin Group's Nick Getz on Healthcare's Consumerism Problem and What's Coming in 2027 | 09 avr. 2026 | 00:24:10 | |
Summary How do you help employees make smarter healthcare decisions in a system that’s anything but consumer-friendly? Nick Getz, National Director of Underwriting & Innovation, Employee Benefits at The Baldwin Group, breaks down how employers can communicate value, drive preventive care, and control rising costs—without overwhelming their people. The Baldwin Group is one of the fastest-growing brokerages in the U.S. with 5,000+ employees, and Nick brings a clear, practical lens: benefits are a retention engine, not just an attraction perk. He shares how to tell the full total-compensation story, why messages need 8–9 touches across existing channels, and how to tailor preventive care to each person’s reality—from GLP‑1 users to simple habit stacking. Nick also explains why U.S. healthcare lacks true consumerism, what that means for navigation and price transparency, and which trends—like pass-through PBMs and regulation—will reshape the employee experience in the next two years. Expect actionable guidance on steering employees to high‑value care, simplifying choices, and preparing for a noisy but necessary wave of change. Timestamps [00:17] – Nick’s role at The Baldwin Group: underwriting innovation, controlling healthcare and pharmacy spend [01:23] – Early money lessons: earning, saving, and the value of choice [02:23] – First jobs and spending that first paycheck—plus the saving lesson that stuck [04:07] – Benefits as retention: telling the total compensation story and what really drives loyalty [06:17] – Communication that works: 8–9 touches, multi-channel, and quarterly focus themes [09:36] – Preventive care redefined: habits, chronic conditions, GLP‑1 use, and meeting people where they are [15:22] – The biggest breakdown: where to go for care and why healthcare lacks true consumerism [19:38] – What’s ahead: regulation as a warning sign, drug costs, transparent PBMs, navigation—and a noisy 2027 Takeaways - Treat benefits as a retention engine—tell the full total compensation story, not just premiums and copays. - Communicate with repetition and variety—use existing channels, aim for 8–9 touches, and theme messages by quarter. - Personalize preventive care—meet people where they are, connect mental and physical health, and promote small, stackable habits. - Steer employees to high‑value care—offer navigation support, explain cost differences, and demystify copays vs. HDHPs. - Tackle pharmacy spend—evaluate transparent, pass‑through PBMs and support access strategies for high-cost, life-saving meds. - Prepare for regulatory shifts—expect noise before clarity; prioritize member experience and cost transparency now.
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Pay Transparency Is Coming Whether You're Ready or Not: Silicon Labs' Total Rewards Leader on Education, Equity, and What Managers Must Learn | 06 avr. 2026 | 00:21:09 | |
Shiny offer letters don't build trust—clear education and consistent execution do. Nick Oliveri, Senior Director of Total Rewards at Silicon Labs (a 1,800-person global semiconductor company with 18 locations), shares a practical playbook for modern compensation and benefits. Grounded in the belief that every dollar represents someone's effort, Nick explains why the biggest breakdowns happen in education—especially manager enablement—and how simplifying salary bands and benefits can close the gap. He details Silicon Labs' enterprise ChatGPT program with custom GPTs for safe, on-demand benefits questions, the guardrails they use in comp planning (live dashboards, merit/equity matrices), and why he prefers buying tech to avoid upkeep drag. Nick also unpacks benefits that truly change lives—parental leave with flexible return and real-life supports—how he measures impact (pulse surveys, external signals), and lessons from an unexpected backlash over a pet insurance switch. Looking ahead, he argues pay transparency is a trust strategy, not just a compliance exercise, with narrower base ranges and incentives doing more of the performance lifting. Tools mentioned include Pave for dynamic comp planning and total rewards visibility. Timestamps [00:45] – Meet Nick Oliveri: career path into Total Rewards and leading comp/benefits at Silicon Labs [02:07] – First memories of money: why "every dollar equals effort" shapes his pay philosophy [04:19] – Where comp/benefits break down: education, transparency, and manager enablement [06:07] – Applying AI: custom GPTs for benefits questions and safer employee learning [08:03] – Guardrails that work: dashboards, comp planning matrices, automation, fresher data [09:01] – Build vs. buy: why upkeep tips the scale toward purchasing HR tech [10:17] – Benefits that change lives: parental leave, flexible returns, and real-world support [17:16] – The next wave: pay transparency as a trust strategy; narrower ranges, bigger incentives [19:18] – Tools to watch: Pave for virtual offers, total rewards visibility, and live comp data
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Employees in Their 70s with $0 Saved: How Northside Hospital Is Using Age-Banded Strategy to Fix Retirement Before It's Too Late | 05 avr. 2026 | 00:24:42 | |
If employees don't use their benefits, they don't create value. Tomekia Williams, Manager of Benefits Administration at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, shares how her team moves beyond "check-the-box" offerings to utilization, impact, and true care for a largely frontline workforce. Northside—known as the "baby hospital" for delivering more babies than any hospital in the U.S.—faces the complexity of educating busy caregivers. Tomekia breaks down how targeted, time‑of‑need communications outperform broad blasts, from hosting segmented info sessions on new IRS catch‑up rules to building age‑banded financial wellbeing programs that start with budgeting for early‑career employees. She also details what changed lives during the pandemic—rolling out Headspace and normalizing proactive mental health support—and why the hospital doubles down on EAP access for employees and their households plus coaching via meQuilibrium. Looking ahead, she highlights AI's role in streamlining benefits administration and why measuring relevance and utilization (not volume) should guide every plan decision. Expect practical moves you can apply now, including a 30‑day experiment to target the largest age cohort in your workforce.
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The Benefit Nobody Expected: GoHealth's Eric Waggoner on Financial Well-Being, Pay Equity, and Why Custom Insoles Outperformed Every Prediction | 04 avr. 2026 | 00:24:54 | |
Summary How do you modernize total rewards for a 6,500-person frontline healthcare workforce—without losing the human touch? Eric Waggoner, Director of Total Rewards at GoHealth Urgent Care, shares how his team balances compliance, cost, and culture across 17 states and multiple health system joint ventures. With a career that began in sales redesigning commission plans, Eric brings a pragmatic lens to compensation, benefits, and financial well-being. He explains how AI can supplement—not replace—HR teams, from speeding compensation cycles with tools like Better Comp to deflecting benefits FAQs during open enrollment. Eric also details how he educates employees on the full value of total rewards, tailors financial well-being by generation, and measures success beyond claims data. Don’t miss his unexpected, high-impact benefit for frontline staff—3D custom insoles—and his take on pay equity guardrails and the rising pressure of prescription drug costs. The episode closes with a 30-day money experiment any listener can try. Timestamps [00:45] – Guest intro: From sales commissions to leading Total Rewards in healthcare [01:57] – GoHealth at a glance: 17-state JV model and a 6,500-person frontline workforce [03:05] – Early money lessons and first jobs—and how they shape empathy in pay and benefits [06:47] – Where comp and benefits break down today: manual work, healthcare costs, and AI as a supplement [09:02] – Tools in practice: Better Comp for compensation cycles and an AI benefits assistant for open enrollment [11:09] – Teaching total rewards value: whole-person design, financial well-being, and generational needs [16:08] – A small benefit with big impact: 3D custom insoles, MSK prevention, and cultural ROI [20:28] – Pay equity readiness: fast-changing laws, annual audits, and transparent guardrails [22:05] – The near-term trend to watch: managing rising RX costs [23:27] – A 30-day experiment to boost your financial well-being: track every dollar Takeaways - Treat AI as a force multiplier: use it to automate FAQs and accelerate comp work while upskilling your team. - Make total rewards visible: share annual total comp statements and explain employer-paid value clearly. - Design for the whole person: integrate physical, emotional, and financial well-being across the career journey. - Personalize financial education: meet generational needs with 401(k) basics, Roth options, and investing literacy. - Pilot targeted frontline benefits: test high-utility perks like 3D custom insoles that reduce MSK strain and lift morale. - Prepare for pay equity at scale: run annual pay audits with demographic cuts and document processes to meet evolving laws. - Tackle RX spend proactively: explore plan design, vendor partnerships, and education to blunt near-term cost pressure.
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| Wealth on the Rails: How Amtrak's Benefits Leader Is Building Financial Futures for 24,000 Employees | 04 avr. 2026 | 00:20:46 | |
Summary How do you drive benefits engagement when most of your workforce is union, frontline, and constantly on the move? Robert Fortin, Senior Manager of Benefits Wealth at Amtrak and former pension consultant, shares how his team thinks beyond retirement to help employees build wealth across their careers. From his earliest money lessons (savings bonds from his grandmother) to riding Amtrak routes to hear frontline feedback firsthand, Robert brings a practical, people-first lens to plan design. He explains why automatic programs beat awareness campaigns, what the Pension Protection Act unlocked for savers, and how default choices still shape outcomes years later. Robert also unpacks Amtrak's unique context—balancing federal funding stewardship with attraction and retention, operating under the Railroad Retirement system, and tailoring offerings like lifestyle spending accounts to a diverse, largely union workforce. He closes with what's next: more employee choice—with the caveat that simplicity, vendor partnership, and updated legislation are essential to make it work. Timestamps [00:20] – Guest intro: Robert's role leading wealth-building at Amtrak and career journey from pensions to plan sponsor [01:21] – Inside Amtrak: mission, union-heavy workforce, and a public service footprint across the U.S. [02:56] – Early money lessons: savings bonds, time value of money, and saving for your future self [05:59] – First job habits: quarters for trash cans, diligence, and forming financial discipline [07:13] – The engagement challenge: remove barriers, use automatic programs, and make saving effortless [08:46] – Policy that changed saving: PPA 2006, auto-enrollment/escalation, default rates, and SECURE 2.0 [11:36] – Reaching frontline employees: safety/benefit fairs, riding the trains, and word-of-mouth influence [14:19] – Balancing the benefits mix: federal funding, healthcare costs, Railroad Retirement, LSAs, and demographics [18:09] – The next trend: expanding employee choice—while managing complexity and regulatory constraints Takeaways
Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| From Unemployment Lines to the C-Suite: Julie Bell on Building Pay Equity, Doubling Wellness Enrollment, and Why Merit Beats COLA | 02 avr. 2026 | 00:24:25 | |
Summary What does it take to transform a billable-rate-driven pay culture into a fair, transparent, and data-backed system? Julie Bell, Global CHRO at Roush, shares how she built a rigorous compensation architecture from the ground up—partnering with Willis Towers Watson, standardizing hundreds of roles, and running annual adverse impact analyses that have cut pay inequities by 50% year over year. With a nontraditional HR path through org effectiveness and M&A integration, Julie brings a transformation-first lens to HR—centralizing offer decisions in Compensation, using regression analysis to win over engineering leaders, and challenging the tendency to overpay unproven new hires while overlooking internal performers. She also breaks down why benefits often go unused, how spouse-inclusive, targeted wellness communications nearly doubled enrollment, and how this strategy helps contain healthcare costs without shifting burden to employees. Julie closes with where AI is heading next in HR—personalized benefits navigation and mental health support—plus her dignity-first approach to difficult workforce actions. Timestamps [00:45] – Julie’s nontraditional path to CHRO and an expanded HR scope (EHS, security, internal comms) [03:20] – Early money memory: layoffs, empathy, and leading with dignity in tough decisions [05:40] – Humane layoffs: designing a process that preserves respect and support [09:20] – From “Wild West” to structure: job architecture, WTW partnership, and pay equity audits [12:00] – Data-led comp: regression analysis, centralized offers, and curbing overpaying new hires [15:40] – Benefits breakdown: closing the usage gap with spouse-targeted wellness outreach [18:10] – Affordability and performance: no COLA, merit-based increases, and promotion velocity [20:40] – What’s next: AI in benefits navigation and mental health; human + AI in practice Takeaways - Build a job architecture and market-based comp structure; run annual adverse impact analyses and close gaps systematically. - Centralize offer decisions with Compensation; benchmark against internal peers to start new hires at equitable levels. - Replace peanut-butter merit and COLA with performance-based merit and targeted promotions; educate leaders and employees on the why. - Treat benefits like a product: drive proactive utilization with targeted communications—especially to spouses—and tailor for workforce demographics. - Use transparent, data-rich reporting (e.g., regression analysis, equity dashboards) to align engineering/ops leaders to the comp model. - Pilot human + AI solutions for benefits education, navigation, and mental health to increase personalization and access while managing costs. Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.
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| The $200 Jordans My Parents Made Me Return: What a Benefits Leader at Universal Learned About Money, Empathy, and Taking Care of Every Single Person | 17 mars 2026 | 00:30:44 | |
Summary Rising costs are squeezing employees at every level—so how do you design pay and benefits that truly meet people where they are? K Bighom, a benefits leader at Universal Destinations & Experiences with 20+ years in global benefits (US, UK, Canada, APAC), shares a pragmatic, human-first playbook. A former pre-med student turned HR pro, K frames people leaders as “healers,” responsible for financial, physical, and mental well-being. He breaks down where compensation and benefits most often fail (inequitable pay, plan design gaps), how to fix them with data and empathy, and why supporting your lowest-paid employees lifts the whole organization. K details practical tools like earned wage access (e.g., DailyPay), EAP expansion, and pay equity analysis—plus how to measure ROI quickly with utilization data and pulse surveys. He also forecasts the benefits trends to watch next: HSAs/FSAs/HRAs, parental leave, onsite childcare, wellness, and transit support. K closes with a simple 30-day savings experiment listeners can start today. Timestamps [00:45] – Early money memories: saving, big families, and the real cost of living [02:41] – First job at Walmart pharmacy: the “Jordans” lesson and building a savings habit [04:06] – From money story to policy: fair pay, equity, and earned wage access done right [06:30] – Career pivot from pre-med to HR: choosing your path and “HR as healers” [12:55] – Where comp/benefits break: pay gaps, plan design misses (dental/vision), and EAP [15:38] – Measuring impact fast: claims/utilization, surveys, and presenting ROI to leadership [22:07] – What’s next: HSAs/FSAs/HRAs, parental leave, onsite daycare, wellness, and transit [25:48] – A 30-day savings experiment and K’s growth goals in global benefits Takeaways - Audit and close pay gaps using data (gap analysis, market benchmarks); meet employees halfway with phased increases and clear timelines. - Design benefits holistically—fill real-life gaps (e.g., missing tooth clauses, annual frames), and invest in EAP and mental health support. - Offer earned wage access to reduce hardship and 401(k) loans; pair it with education and thoughtful guardrails. - Measure ROI early: track speed-to-impact, utilization, and sentiment with quick surveys; bring board-ready visuals and stories. - Expand supportive benefits: HSAs/FSAs/HRAs, parental leave, childcare solutions, wellness/gym, and transit subsidies. - Build personal resilience: automate a small monthly transfer to a separate account to grow an emergency fund. Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track. See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| How to Fund a Bonus Program Without Killing Morale: Kong's Ademar Martins on Creative Budgeting, Pay Transparency, and the Calculator That Saved the Rollout | 17 mars 2026 | 00:30:08 | |
Summary If employees don’t understand their rewards, they can’t value them. Ademar Martins, Head of Total Rewards and People Operations at Kong Inc., shares how he turns complex comp and benefits into clear, trusted programs. With nearly two decades in HR across public and private companies, Ademar blends budget-savvy design with crisp communication—think shifting merit timing to preserve value, launching a companywide bonus funded thoughtfully, and equipping managers with simple, personalized calculators. He details how Kong uses pay equity tools like Sindio Solutions, analytics via Visier and Workday, and a “test with non-HR first” rule to make messaging stick. Ademar also breaks down time-off practices that truly change lives—flexible time off, quarterly unplugged days, a year-end shutdown, sabbaticals, and flexible work—plus how he measures impact with benefits pulses, engagement, and eNPS. He closes with the implications of pay transparency mandates, AI’s effect on roles and ranges, and a 30-day experiment to spark financial well-being. Timestamps [00:45] – Guest intro: Ademar’s role at Kong and two-decade HR journey [03:36] – Early money lessons: integrity, first jobs, and how they shape pay decisions [06:20] – Budget creativity: changing merit effective dates to meet savings without gutting raises [09:04] – Where comp breaks down: communications; rolling out a bonus with calculators and cascade training [14:08] – Manager enablement: simplify tools, test with non-HR, record sessions, hold office hours; pay equity audits with Sindio [17:18] – Programs that transform lives: FTO, year-end shutdown, quarterly unplugged days, sabbaticals, recognition, flexible work [19:51] – Measuring impact: benefits surveys, engagement, and internal NPS [24:52] – What’s next: pay transparency mandates, AI’s impact on compensation, and a 30-day experiment to boost financial well-being Takeaways - Make rewards understandable: use simple calculators, show before/after, and cascade training from execs to managers to employees. - Equip managers to communicate: strip jargon, test with non-HR partners, record sessions, and host office hours. - Stretch limited budgets: adjust timing (not only amounts) and design bonus transitions with higher individual weighting to reduce risk. - Build time-off into the system: FTO, companywide shutdowns, quarterly unplugged days, sabbaticals, and flexible work drive real-life impact. - Measure and iterate: run benefits pulses and engagement/eNPS, and refine programs based on what each workforce values most. - Prepare now: embrace pay transparency, monitor AI-driven market shifts, and use tools like Sindio, Visier, and Workday to stay proactive. Sponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence. With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track. See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/ | |||
| The Future Is Personalized Benefits: Keri Seppala on Pay Transparency, Manager Training, and Why Biometric Screenings Need Flexibility to Work | 02 mars 2026 | 00:24:24 | |
Summary If employees don’t understand their pay and benefits, even great programs miss the mark. Kerry Seppala, a 25+ year executive in Total Rewards, HRIS, and Payroll across manufacturing, public/private, and government organizations, breaks down how to build trust-first compensation and benefits that people actually use. Drawing on experience with large frontline workforces and deep Workday expertise, Kerry explains where comp/benefits communication fails, how to train managers to discuss ranges, compression, and fairness, and why flexibility must extend to the shop floor—not just corporate roles. She explores the EU’s pay transparency ripple effects, the rise of employees as “benefits consumers,” and how personalized benefits allowances could reshape cost and choice. Kerry also shares where AI already adds value—bots for first-line HR questions and recruiting—and why consolidating tools inside core systems matters. Expect practical tactics: building HRIS to surface total rewards clearly, enabling on-the-clock biometric screenings to drive wellness and equity, and creating feedback loops through engagement surveys and town halls. She closes with a 30-day experiment to sharpen personal financial wellbeing. Timestamps [00:45] – Guest intro: 25+ years in Total Rewards/HRIS across manufacturing, public/private, and government [04:45] – Where comp/benefits break down: education gaps on benefits, paychecks, and program design [06:13] – Systems and transparency: Workday done right; manager training; Illinois pay ranges [08:14] – Manager mindset shifts: compression, equitable decisions, and bias-proof review cycles [09:44] – Frontline-first benefits: on-site flexibility and paid biometric screenings to boost wellness [15:59] – What’s next: EU pay transparency, employees as savvy consumers, and personalized benefits [18:25] – Practical AI in HR: bots for first-line questions and recruiting; fewer bolt-ons, more integration [21:18] – 30-day experiment: track every expense to reveal savings opportunities and habits Takeaways - Train managers to talk pay with confidence—ranges, comp ratios, compression, and bias checks. - Build HRIS (e.g., Workday) to surface total rewards clearly; pair with ongoing employee education. - Extend flexibility to frontline teams; pay for wellness screenings on-the-clock to drive participation. - Prepare for pay transparency at scale—upgrade systems, craft clear talking points, and expect more questions. - Treat employees like consumers; pilot personalized benefits or stipends to align cost with actual usage. - Deploy AI bots for first-line HR and recruiting questions to speed responses and reduce ticket volume. Sponsor AllVoices brings all your employee relations work together in one place. No more jumping between spreadsheets, emails, and legacy systems just one place to document and manage reports, cases, investigations, and performance conversations. It helps you run a more consistent process, takes busywork off your plate with AI, and makes it easier to spot trends early, so you can work proactively, not just put out fires. See a demo at https://www.allvoices.co/ | |||
| Your Employees Don't Experience Pay the Way You Do: Dallas College's Eric Rodriguez on Trust, Transparency, and Treating Employees Like Customers | 27 févr. 2026 | 00:32:10 | |
Summary When compensation gets complex, trust erodes. Eric A. Rodriguez, Deputy CHRO at Dallas College, shares how he simplifies pay and benefits to reduce anxiety and build credibility—grounded in a personal money story that equates every paycheck with unseen effort, dignity, and stability. With oversight of HR operations, shared services, HRIS, and quality improvement, Eric explains how to move HR from programs to operational excellence: communicate early, remove jargon, and design for the day-to-day employee experience. He details a practical model for bridging leadership and employee needs, why “best practices” must be tailored to each organization, and how a culture of curiosity turns employees into co-creators. Eric also breaks down Dallas College’s HR transformation, from clearer ways of working across EX centers, COEs, and HRBPs to de-risking AI through hands-on training. Expect real examples—from a kid-run car wash to grocery-store tips that shaped his service mindset—and actionable guidance on role-based flexibility, development that employees actually want, and leading with the “why” behind work. Timestamps [00:18] – From sales to senior HR: Eric’s role and remit at Dallas College (HR ops, shared services, HRIS, QA) [02:23] – Money as sacrifice and dignity: how early lessons shape views on pay [04:19] – First jobs: entrepreneurship, tips, and the power of service [08:46] – Turning beliefs into practice: trust, stability, and plain-language pay/benefits [12:27] – Where comp/benefits break down: overcomplexity, late comms, copy-paste “best practices” [15:21] – Bridging the gap: the “why” behind work, autonomy, and modern leadership [19:51] – Beyond surveys: building a culture of curiosity and treating employees like customers [22:34] – Transforming HR: operating excellence, EX centers/COEs/HRBPs, and AI training to reduce fear [26:14] – What’s next: AI adoption, RTO nuance, and role-based flexibility Takeaways - Simplify pay and benefits—strip jargon to build trust and reduce employee anxiety. - Communicate early and often; co-design solutions with leaders and employees. - Customize “best practices” to your culture, workforce mix, and stage of maturity. - Treat employees like customers—ask specific, frequent questions to uncover real needs. - Invest in development that matters (especially AI literacy) to drive engagement and retention. - Define flexibility by role and outcomes, pairing empathy with high-performance expectations. Sponsor AllVoices brings all your employee relations work together in one place. No more jumping between spreadsheets, emails, and legacy systems just one place to document and manage reports, cases, investigations, and performance conversations. It helps you run a more consistent process, takes busywork off your plate with AI, and makes it easier to spot trends early, so you can work proactively, not just put out fires. See a demo at https://www.allvoices.co/ | |||