Rethinking Total Rewards: Dr. Jermaine King on Pay, Flexibility, and Custom Benefits

Summary

Are your pay practices and benefits keeping pace with what employees actually value?

HR executive and leadership consultant Dr. Jermaine King—retired from the United States Air Force—breaks down how to modernize compensation and benefits with clarity, choice, and data.

He explains the biggest gap he sees today: market pay is a living, moving target, while reviews are still annual. Dr. King shares why HR must teach the “how and why” of benefits (not just list them), how flexibility has become real currency alongside pay, and why recruitment marketing should spotlight all roles, not just headline ones.

He offers concrete examples—from building a transportation program to reduce turnover to pairing Power BI dashboards with Qualtrics to capture the “why” behind the numbers. He closes with a 30-day listening experiment any leader can run to increase trust and take action fast.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Guest intro: USAF roots, HR leadership, and consulting focus

[01:29] – Early money lessons and how they shape views on security and priorities

[05:19] – From “what” to “why”: teaching employees how and when to use benefits

[07:41] – The comp gap: living market data vs. annual reviews—and what to change

[09:24] – Flexibility as currency: pay trade-offs, hybrid/remote, and total rewards clarity

[12:16] – Case studies: recruiting beyond clinicians; transportation as a retention-driving perk

[16:24] – Proving impact with data: Power BI dashboards + Qualtrics “voice of employee”

[23:51] – 30-day experiment: 15-minute listening sessions and micro-actions

Takeaways

- Educate employees on the how and why of benefits—when to use 401(k), PTO, and care options.

- Recalibrate pay practices: align review frequency with real-time market data, not just annual cycles.

- Treat flexibility as part of compensation; quantify and communicate total rewards trade-offs.

- Broaden recruiting messages to highlight critical support roles and strengthen employer brand.

- Combine quantitative dashboards (Power BI) with qualitative insights (Qualtrics) to guide decisions.

- Pilot choice-based benefits so employees pick what fits their life—and negotiate options with carriers.

Sponsor

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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/