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.

Chapters

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

Takeaways

• Once your own income is stable, it is easy to forget what financial instability feels like. The best total rewards leaders hold onto that memory and never assume everyone has a six-month safety net.
• Stacking benefit programs creates the illusion of coverage. Fourteen offerings can still reach only 15 to 20% of your people.
• Real personalization is not just person to person. The same employee needs different support at different moments of their own life, so benefits should bend instead of multiply.
• The annual survey is mismatched to reality because lives change far more than once a year. Listening to a frontline workforce often means getting back on the ground in person.
• A value built on karma, what you give is what you get back, turns whole person support into genuine retention, and the workforce of the future will increasingly want a work to live, skills based flexibility.

Connect with the Guest

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-gonzales-wilson-ccp-phr-46165b8/

Website: https://www.switch.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

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

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/

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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

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.

Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-wechsler-sphr-ccp-a452734/
Website: https://www.akamai.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

Summary
Beyond the Paycheck sits down with Tia Larsen, Director of Benefits at FJ Management, to trace the compensation comprehension gap back to its source: a financial literacy system that never taught employees how to read a pay package. Tia draws on 16 years managing benefits, a portfolio of 16,500 employees across six industries, and her own experience of living paycheck to paycheck to make the case that total rewards statements and open enrollment education are solving for the wrong moment. The episode covers workplace clinics, the pay-yourself-first habit, and why the missing ingredient in every benefits strategy isn't better data — it's the right conversation at the right time.

Chapters
00:00 Tia Larsen and the FJ Management portfolio
04:30 Earliest memories of money and earning
08:30 The pay-yourself-first habit
12:00 Where employees get total compensation wrong
15:00 Why total rewards statements fail
17:30 The open enrollment timing problem
19:00 On-site clinics that changed employees' lives
22:30 The ROI case for workplace clinics
24:30 Pay transparency and flexibility as coming expectations

Takeaways

1. Employees who chase base salary without factoring in benefits cost, 401(k) match, and flexibility frequently end up with less take-home pay after switching jobs.
2. Total rewards statements fail not because of their design, but because they land months before employees need the information they contain.
3. On-site workplace clinics create predictable costs for employers while eliminating the impossible choice some employees face between medication and groceries.
4. Benefits comprehension is built through repeated, plain-language conversations across the year, not through a single annual enrollment presentation.
5. Pay transparency is already happening whether employers lead it or not — employees are comparing salaries, and legislation is coming regardless.

Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tia-larsen-mshr-ccp-cpsp-shrm-scp-5125602a/
Website: https://fjmgt.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

• (00:00) - Tia Larsen and the FJ Management portfolio

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
02:15 Earliest money memory: saving pocket money for a motor racing helmet TV
04:00 First job: games tester at EA, a rival of Take-Two
05:30 Benefits strategy by life stage: young workforce vs. older workforce
07:30 Where benefits break down: the comprehension crisis
09:30 Gamification in benefits: interesting in theory, dangerous in practice
10:30 Financial wellbeing as the most important pillar
12:00 Elder care and the sandwich generation
14:00 Cost of living, global inflation, and financial wellbeing at work
15:30 AI and the shift from reactive to proactive benefits
17:30 Flexible and voluntary benefits: the dream of year-round personalization
19:30 How to connect with Tim

Takeaways

1. Most employees don't understand their benefits package — and measuring comprehension, not just coverage, is the metric most organizations are missing.
2. Financial wellbeing is the load-bearing pillar: when finances are stable, mental health generally follows.
3. AI in benefits is shifting from reactive (employees ask) to proactive (AI tells) faster than most HR teams are preparing for.
4. Benefits strategy must map to life stage — a 25-year-old and a 55-year-old need fundamentally different things from the same employer.
5. Elder care — power of attorney, will writing, family financial planning — is becoming one of the most meaningful benefits an employer can offer.

Connect with Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tgoodchild/
Website: https://www.take2games.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

• (00:00) - Welcome and Tim's background at Take-Two Interactive

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.

Chapters

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

Takeaways

1. The benefits problem is usually communication, not budget; employees can't value what they never see.
2. Financial wellbeing is the missing piece of workplace wellness, and financial stress shows up as distraction and disengagement.
3. A midyear, personalized total compensation statement ending in one number can change how employees see the company.
4. Treat benefits communication like consumer marketing: personalized, year-round, and specific to the individual.
5. When people feel the company is invested in their lives and not just their output, retention and engagement follow.

Meet the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preet-hansra-michelson/
Website: https://www.tmsw.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

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. 

Engagement scores went up year over year. No new spend. No new vendor. Just education. In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Alex Bertin, Head of Total Rewards at BambooHR, for a practical conversation about what it looks like to close the understanding gap between what a company offers and what employees actually know they have. Alex brings a finance background from FP&A at Delta Air lines and Qualtrics before finding his way into compensation—what he calls the Cinderella glass slipper moment—and he carries a grounded empathy for frontline employees into every benefits decision he makes. 

He and Kelsey get into why the biggest breakdown in comp and benefits isn't the package itself but the disconnect between what exists and what employees know about it, how BambooHR's paid vacation bonus (yes, they pay you to take your vacation) has become their most beloved benefit, a student loan repayment benefit that an employee forgot about twice despite it being $100/month in free money, and why the next wave of AI in benefits will be agentic tools that connect all your benefits in one place so employees stop losing track of what they have. If you run total rewards and are looking for low-cost, high-impact ways to drive engagement, Alex's perspective on education over addition will resonate.

Timestamps

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

Takeaways

• The biggest breakdown in total rewards isn't the package—it's the understanding gap; one comp training can shift employee trust dramatically
• Don't just offer benefits—actively market them to your employees the way you'd market a product to customers; it takes seven touches for a message to land
• A paid paid vacation bonus that actually gives employees money to take their trip is more powerful than unlimited PTO because it changes behavior
• Check which benefits employees are forgetting about; free money that goes unused is worse than not offering it at all
• Run a 30-day "use it" campaign on one underutilized benefit with weekly emails, real stories, and clear how-tos—the results are binary and the cost is nearly zero

Connect with the Guest
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbertin/

Company website: https://www.bamboohr.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.

See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/

• (01:42) - Alex's earliest money memory: $2 bills and selling Costco candy at swim lessons

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
02:15 Hollie's Background: From Zappos to Power Home Remodeling
05:30 The Financial Independence Lesson Learned at Age 9
10:20 How a Personal Money Story Shapes Compensation Philosophy
14:00 Where Compensation and Benefits Break Down Most
19:30 The Quality-of-Life Math Most Offers Miss
23:45 Building Benefits by Listening to the Small Things
27:00 AI, Trends, and Staying Strategy-First
30:20 A 30-Day Financial Wellness Experiment

Takeaways

1. Most employees evaluate offers by salary alone — Hollie's framework adds hours required, career trajectory, and lifestyle delivered to the equation before any offer is accepted.
2. The biggest compensation breakdown is not always the employer: it is employees who do not understand how their role is priced in the market and do not advocate based on that knowledge.
3. Financial independence is built through ownership — of your market value, your negotiating position, and how you evaluate an opportunity beyond the number.
4. Benefits that move people are not the big shiny ones. They are the day-to-day supports employees actually need: therapy benefits outside insurance friction, childcare subsidies, family planning coverage.
5. Strategy determines whether any trend — including AI — actually improves the organization. Tools without a clear purpose create noise, not results.

Guest Links

Hollie Delaney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollie-delaney-573b89a/
Power Home Remodeling: https://www.powerhrg.com/

• (00:00) - Introduction and Welcome

Summary
Jessica O'Leary runs benefits for 3,000+ employees across a charter school network in Dallas-Fort Worth. Her framework: treat every dollar of employee premium like your own. That means negotiating free behavioral health coaching through Cigna, building a maternity leave financial planning workshop, and creating total rewards statements that show teachers exactly where their compensation dollars go. She opens with a story about selling books on her front lawn in second grade—then connects that entrepreneur mindset to how she structures benefits today. Two core challenges emerge: school districts face severe budget constraints while competing for talent, and employees increasingly ask "what's my return on investment for working here?" Her answer includes EAPs with unlimited counseling, AI-powered enrollment tools that recommend plans based on health needs, and gift card incentives that drive 3x engagement at benefits fairs.

Timestamps
00:16 From Milwaukee gamer to benefits director at a Texas charter network 
02:50 First paycheck went to school clothes—and set a pattern for financial independence 
05:16 Why Street Fighter and Sims taught early lessons about maximizing value 
07:18 Delivering value under budget pressure: free behavioral health coaches and creative partnerships 
10:25 Where compensation and benefits breakdowns happen most often 
12:22 The transparency challenge: building total rewards statements that show the full picture 
15:06 Mental health benefits evolve from three sessions to unlimited counseling 
17:34 Measuring impact through retention and reduced out-of-pocket costs 
19:28 Employees now negotiate for benefits, not just salary 
22:16 Incentivizing engagement with gift cards and maternity leave financial planning workshops 

Takeaways
- Tap your medical carrier's budget for free resources—Jessica secured a no-cost behavioral health coach through Cigna that handles chronic conditions, weight loss plans, and mental health counseling
- Build a total rewards statement that shows employees exactly where their compensation goes beyond salary, including benefits contributions and education stipends
- Incentivize benefits education with Amazon gift cards—employees mentally value a $20 gift card more than $20 cash and will show up to learn
- AI enrollment tools can cut decision fatigue by recommending health plans based on family needs and current conditions
- Create proactive financial planning workshops for major life events like maternity leave to prevent employees from running out of PTO and going unpaid

Connect with the Guest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-o-leary-mba-phr-8b3a686/
Website: https://uplifteducation.org/

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/

• (00:16) - From Milwaukee gamer to benefits director at a Texas charter network