The Vita Talks HR and Benefits Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Happy New Year to our Vita Talks Listeners. Starting 2026 off with our first episode, host Gianna Ricciardi sits down with Cristelle Sary, lawyer and managing partner at Messier Sary & Consultants. With over 15 years of experience in pension, benefits, and employment law, and registration with both the Quebec and Ontario bars, Cristelle brings a legal lens to one of the fastest-growing realities in today's workforce: employees working past age 65. 

Cristelle explains how longer life expectancy, financial pressure, and shifting retirement norms are colliding with benefit and pension systems that were designed decades ago. Drawing from recent case law, she highlights where employers may face legal risk, where flexibility is possible, and why age-based employee benefit cutoffs are being increasingly scrutinized.

• Employers & Business Leaders managing employees who work past age 65
• HR & Benefits Professionals navigating age-related plan design and compliance
• Pension & Benefits Advisors supporting aging or multigenerational workforces
• Legal & Policy-Minded Professionals interested in employment, benefits, and human rights law

Mentioned Links:

Cristelle's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristelle-sary-7192b1102/?originalSubdomain=ca 

Stay Connected to Vita Assure: Insurance and Workplace Benefits

Vita Talks Podcast  | https://www.vitaassure.com/podcast/ 
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/vita-assure/ 
Website | https://www.vitaassure.com/ 

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⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
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In this episode of Vita Talks, host Gianna Ricciardi sits down with Cory Brewer, Founder of Beyond Landscaping and Co-Founder of Market Hill Agency. Cory shares how he grew his North Vancouver landscaping company while tackling one of today's biggest business challenges: finding and keeping strong people.

He discusses the turning point that led him to rethink how his office operated, ultimately building a fully virtual back-office team overseas. Cory also opens up about how Beyond Landscaping keeps field staff engaged through culture, year-round work opportunities, and better structure. His experience eventually inspired a second business supporting entrepreneurs with trained remote executive assistants.

Whether you manage field teams, hybrid teams, or a growing small business, this episode offers practical ideas for building a more resilient and efficient workforce—without giving everything away.

• Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners – especially in trades, construction, or services, struggling with hiring and retention.

• Operations & HR Leaders – looking for real-world examples of hybrid teams (field + fully remote office) that actually work.

• People Managers in High-Turnover Industries – interested in building a stronger culture and engagement with frontline teams.

• Founders Feeling Overworked – who want to understand how remote executive assistants can help them reclaim time and focus.

Mentioned Links:

• Connect with Cory on LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/corybrewer/?originalSubdomain=ca 

• Connect with Cory on Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/corybrew/?hl=en 

Stay Connected to Vita Assure; Insurance and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast
• LinkedIn
• Website

💡 Share this episode with colleagues and leaders in your network
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🔔 Subscribe for future conversations about benefits, leadership, and workplace wellness

Thinking about offering employee benefits but feeling lost? You're not alone. Many small businesses struggle to set up group insurance that works for their team and their budget. Some plans feel too rigid, too expensive, or just too complicated. 

In this special Vita Talks HR & Benefits takeover episode, Dominic lafigliola turns the mic on Gianna Ricciardi, Co-Founder and Practice Leader at Vita Assure. Gianna shares a real-life case study of a small software business that struggled with setting up benefits—and how they finally found the right solution. 

Whether you're an HR professional or a small business owner, this episode will help you navigate the group insurance process with confidence. 

What You'll Learn in This Episode: 

• The #1 mistake small businesses make when setting up group insurance 
• The difference between an insurance broker and an advisor (and why it matters) 
• Flexible benefits vs. traditional benefits: Which is right for your company? 
• How to compare insurance quotes without getting overwhelmed 
• Top employee benefits trends in 2025 (Health Spending Accounts, Mental Health, & More) 
• The step-by-step process to setting up a benefits plan with minimal hassle 

This episode is packed with practical insights to help HR teams, business owners, and decision-makers create a benefits plan that actually works for their employees. 

Who Should Listen? 

🎯 Small business owners setting up benefits for the first time 
🎯 HR professionals struggling to choose the right insurance provider 
🎯 Employers looking for more flexible, cost-effective benefits solutions 

If you're exploring employee benefits and want a clear, strategic approach, this episode is packed with practical insights to help you make the best decision. 

🎧 Press play now to learn how to create an employee benefits plan that actually works! 

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance and Workplace Benefits 

• Website 
• Vita Talks Podcast 
• Vita Assure LinkedIn Page 
   

Ways to Support This Podcast:  
💡  Share this episode with colleagues and friends 
⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 
🔔  Subscribe for future episodes 

Joining Gianna in this episode is Farzeen Foda, Founder of PeopleStrategy.ca, a Human Resources and Organizational Development consultancy focused on partnering with organizations to design work that inspires performance and effectiveness. Farzeen is also an instructor for the Essentials of People Analytics and Analytics Project Design at York University, a program to help HR Professionals confidently apply concepts and practices in various organizations. 

Farzeen discusses the re-design of an Early Talent Program within the technology department of a large financial institution. While the program welcomed almost a thousand undergraduate students annually, most did not return to the organization to continue their careers post-graduation.

Learn how the organization utilized technology, in conjunction with a communication campaign, to encourage students to share key information. Armed with meaningful and reliable data, they were better equipped to pipeline students by matching skill sets with skill gaps, as well as to deploy educational programs to help students identify career opportunities within the organization.

Farzeen advocates for all organizations, whether small or big, to take advantage of people analytics to mobilize teams and foster them internally. 

Mentioned Links

• PeopleStrategy's website
• PeopleStrategy LinkedIn
• Connect with Farzeen on LinkedIn

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance and Workplace Benefits 

• Vita Talks Podcast
• LinkedIn
• Employee Benefits

Happy New Year! On today's episode, Gianna sits down with Coralia Raducea, founder of Elentia Consulting, a recruitment and human resources consulting firm that offers personalized services, while taking your organizational needs to heart.  

Coralia explains why companies would choose to use an external HR expert over attempting to tackle issues in-house, and shares an example of a high-growth SAAS company that she worked with to optimize their HR infrastructure.  

We learn how her initial audit revealed bottlenecks in onboarding, uneven management practices across departments, and declining employee morale; and discuss best practices for scaling HR practices to keep up with an organization's growth.  

Join us as Coralia walks us through the process of adapting onboarding to accommodate new types of roles, developing leadership training and co-development programs, and implementing employee feedback mechanisms to capture progress and evaluate morale. 

Mentioned Links

• Coralia's LinkedIn
• Elentia Consulting LinkedIn
• Coralia's Website

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance, and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast
• LinkedIn
• Employee Benefits

Today, Gianna sits down with Barbara Gobetti, HR Manager at Estateably. Barbara shares her journey within the company, starting as a Financial Analyst, and explains how her path led her to a role in HR. She took on various responsibilities alongside HR, such as payroll, hiring, and screening, which ultimately caught the attention of leadership and earned her the position of Human Resources Manager.

Barbara discusses her core priorities in HR, including compliance, legal considerations, management support, employee experience, and delegating responsibilities effectively. She also explores the differences between how startups and established companies approach HR, emphasizing how these differences can complement each other.

Barbara defines her guiding principle in HR as creating positive change and fostering a thoughtful workplace. She stresses the importance of asking questions, seeking additional support, and taking ownership of one's need for knowledge and experience—key elements in building a strong foundation for effective HR practices.

Mentioned Links

• Estateably's website

• Estateably's LinkedIn

• Connect with Barbara on LinkedIn

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast

• LinkedIn

• Employee Benefits

Joining Gianna today is Adriana Arian, HR Director at Brain Box AI. Brain Box AI is Great Place to Work certified which Adriana credits to her team's HR strategies and inclusive work environment. 

Adriana shares her values of organically recruiting team members via diversity, providing everyone with shared opportunities, and highlighting an individual's skills and talents as the most important quality as opposed to the accent of one's voice.

Adriana emphasizes adopting empathy when working with team members, akin to therapy as HR sometimes deals with emotional difficulties or suffering amongst staff. Adriana breaks down her strategies for advancing a team's diversity and offers her advice to other employers.

Mentioned Links 

• Great Place To Work Certificate for BrainBox AI
• BrainBox Ai website
• Adriana on BrainBox Ai
• Adriana's LinkedIn

Connect With Us

• Vita Assure
• Subscribe to the Vita Talks Newsletter
• Group Employee Benefits

Recruiting is expensive. In fact, some experts place the cost of hiring a candidate at three times that candidate's annual salary. It shouldn't surprise anyone, then, that businesses that recruit poorly often don't last long. So how do you do it right?

In this episode of the Vita Talks podcast, Gianna is joined by Samantha Bateman, the founder and talent acquisition leader at Integria Consulting, to figure that out. As Samantha explains, a structured approach is key - So is treating candidates like equal clients in the recruitment process. After all, successfully placing them is crucial for company revenue.

Throughout this episode, Samantha uses case studies from her work helping global organizations deal with development challenges. She also covers the key techniques that make the difference between a successful and disastrous recruiting process — from using templates for intake, leveraging scheduling tools, establishing regular calls with agencies, and scheduling feedback sessions with hiring managers.

In short, as Samantha demonstrates, being organized is the secret to successful recruiting.

• Integria Consulting
• Samantha's LinkedIn

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance, and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast
• LinkedIn
• Group Employee Benefits

In this episode of the Vita Talks Podcast, Gianna is joined by Leigh-Ann Ing, the head of wellness at Gowling WLG, a Canadian law firm with over 1,500 legal professionals. Leigh-Ann discusses the firm's evolving wellness strategy, which centers compassion and self-kindness. These values are often overlooked in the high-pressure environment of the legal industry, which instead often prioritizes performance and perfectionism. 

Leigh-Ann shares how she developed this strategy, a process that included conducting active listening exercises to understand employee perspectives on wellness. She emphasizes how important it is to remain flexible and able to adapt a wellness strategy when needed. Also critical is leadership buy-in, which can be achieved by demonstrating the value of investing in wellness. Leigh-Ann describes how she and her team are working on implementing quarterly or semi-annual data dashboards to measure progress.

Ultimately, Leigh-Ann explains, integrating well-being into all aspects of the organization is crucial for success.

• Gowling WLG

• Leigh-Ann Ing's LinkedIn

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast

• LinkedIn

• Group Employee Benefits

In this episode of The Vita Talks Podcast, Nicole Piggott, president and founder of Synclusiv, a DEI consulting firm joins the podcast. Nicole underscores the importance of prioritizing inclusion to foster diversity in the workplace and shares a case study from a remote Canadian operation where cultural awareness and culturally relevant therapists for employees drastically improved retention and reduced absenteeism.

Nicole discusses the evolution of DEI initiatives, noting that only truly committed organizations maintain these values over time. She outlines practical DEI strategies, including workshops for employees, leaders, and HR professionals, focusing on changing mindsets, adapting systems, and fostering inclusive cultures. Nicole emphasizes the significance of incremental changes and tailoring benefits to meet diverse needs offering valuable guidance for anyone aiming to create more inclusive workplaces.

• Synclusiv

• Connect with Nicole on Linkedin

Stay Connected to Vita Assure, Insurance and Workplace Benefits

• Vita Talks Podcast

• LinkedIn

• Group Benefit Plans