Beyond the Paycheck

Summary
What do you do when the best benefits can't be justified by a spreadsheet? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Ann Meyers Piccirillo, CHRO of JDA TSG, about growing a company from 100 to 13,000 employees and building benefits for a workforce most benefits systems forget. Ann shares her case for strategic ROI alongside quantitative ROI, told through the surprise success of grandparent leave; the concierge healthcare experiment that went unused for two years and what its failure revealed about what employees really want; and the cafeteria-style healthcare plan she's building for seasonal workers, anchored in telehealth. A conversation for HR and benefits leaders who want to design for the people they actually employ.

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
Ann Meyers Piccirillo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annpiccirillo/
Company Website: https://www.jdatsg.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
What do employees actually need from their rewards package? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Eric Gutierrez, VP of Total Rewards at Point B, about why total rewards leaders should stop tinkering with programs and start managing the overall work experience, the $20 million healthcare premium investment whose most lasting return came from leaders rather than employees, and his controversial take on the financial wellness industry: budgeting programs are cute, but what people need is a living wage that keeps up with inflation. Along the way: the war for DNA-role talent that never pauses, return on employee sentiment as a companion to financial ROI, and the psychological shift coming as AI moves from tool to collaborator. A conversation for HR and total rewards leaders who want benefits people actually feel.

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
Eric Gutierrez LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ergutierrez/
Company Website: https://www.pointb.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
What does it take to keep frontline employees past their first year? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Catherine Johnson, EVP and Chief People Officer at Travis Credit Union, about the financial wellness pilot that helped cut first-year frontline turnover from 50% to 14%, how she won leadership approval by framing HR investments the way the business tests new products, and why the one size fits all benefits catalog is headed for extinction. Along the way: the $5,250 tuition benefit nobody used until bandwidth entered the plan, dependent care that now spans children and aging parents, and the case for letting employees curate benefits to their stage of life. A conversation for HR and total rewards leaders building benefits people actually feel.

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
- A financial wellness pilot built on two hypotheses, that cared-for employees stay and that employees who trust the tool serve members better, helping cut first-year frontline turnover from 50% to 14%.
- Framing HR investments the way the business already tests products, pilot in one market and then make a go or no go call, is what finally won leadership approval.
- A benefit without bandwidth is a flop: tuition reimbursement jumped from $250 to $5,250 and usage still fell to zero until Travis started planning learning time into the workday.
- The annual one size fits all benefits catalog assumes every benefit holds the same value for every employee; life-stage curation, from elder care to pet bereavement leave, is the next shift.
- Listening channels beat headlines: twice-yearly employee benefit surveys and a Northern California credit union rewards network surface needs that never make the news.

Connect with the Guest
Catherine Johnson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cjohnson5/
Company Website: https://www.traviscu.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/

Summary
What happens when AI runs more of HR than people do? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones sits down with Kelsey Browning, VP of People Operations at Invisible Technologies, who has spent 12 years practicing full stack HR at tech companies in moments of change. Kelsey explains why benefits are table stakes rather than a differentiator, why most employees don't understand the benefits they already have, and how she maps the employee lifecycle like a customer lifecycle to find the moments that matter. Then she looks ahead to the leaner, AI-powered HR team built around generalists with many specialties, and raises the questions nobody has answered yet: how do you compensate someone doing the job of five people, who's accountable when the AI is wrong, and how will the next generation of specialists ever get built? A sharp, practical conversation for HR, people ops, and total rewards leaders navigating the AI transition.

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
Kelsey Browning LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseybrowning/
Company Website: https://www.invisibletech.ai

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
What are you actually paying your employees for? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Joshua Lemon, Senior Director of Global Total Rewards at Resideo, about why total reward statements feel like showing your kids the grocery receipt, how his team uses personas to make benefits communication human across a 15,000 person global workforce, and why AI's uneven multiplying effect could end the era of paying for presence. Along the way: making the case for benefits the spreadsheet can't justify, Resideo's above benchmark 7% 401(k) match, and the fiduciary thinking behind saying no to 401(k) loans. A conversation for HR and total rewards leaders rethinking what pay and benefits are really for.

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
Joshua Lemon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshualemon/
Company Website: https://www.resideo.com
Book waitlist: https://joshlemonai.com
Justin Hampton's Article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-showing-me-receipt-case-against-total-rewards-hampton-ccp-uyduc/

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
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
Cristabel Lim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristabellim
Company Website: https://www.epicor.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
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
Zena Stephens Joy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenastephens/
Company Website: https://www.fortra.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
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
Christopher Forbeck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cforbeckmba/
Company Website: https://www.northwesternenergy.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 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
Stephanie Elliott LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-elliott-5533831a/
Company Website: https://sgadental.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
What does fair pay actually mean when your employees span more than 20 countries? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones talks with Felipe Uliani, Director of Global Total Rewards at Rimini Street, about the money story that started with giving his entire first paycheck to his parents in Brazil, why a total rewards leader has to be a steward of the employees, and how to design global programs when benefits can't cross borders. Felipe shares his 80/20 rule for global compensation, the story of an employee stock purchase plan that couldn't reach every country and the localized benefits that offset it, and his definition of fairness as a clear, consistent, defensible system rather than everyone getting what they want. A grounded conversation for HR, compensation, and total rewards leaders navigating global teams.

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
Felipe Uliani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fuliani/
Company Website: https://www.riministreet.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/