Benefits teams are under pressure — rising medical costs, mental health claims, disengaged employees, and finance teams demanding proof. Claire Reading from WPP joins Carl and David to talk candidly about what’s really broken in benefits, why prevention is such a hard sell, and why nailing the basics still matters more than launching the next shiny thing.

Claire Reading is a global benefits professional with 12+ years’ experience delivering strategic change across EMEA, APAC, and the US. She has led benefits harmonisation, policy design, and global programme rollouts, partnering closely with HR, business, and communications teams to enhance employee experience and deliver cost-effective, inclusive solutions.

Along the way, Claire shares a clear perspective: while the industry chases “jazzy” benefits, many employees still don’t properly understand the fundamentals — and that gap comes with real risk.

00:00 — The Basics Are Being Left Behind

00:47 — Falling Into Benefits

02:29 — The Reality of In-House Benefits Roles

03:00 — Mental Health and Long-Term Sick Leave

04:28 — Why the Numbers Are Rising

05:18 — When Work and Life Blur

06:20 — NHS Pressure Drives Private Claims

08:14 — Benefits Don’t Land When People Are in Crisis

10:05 — Why Prevention Is So Hard to Sell

12:12 — How to Win Finance Over

16:48 — Intervention Is Easier Than Prevention

29:15 — Why Innovation Often Stalls

31:35 — The Benefit People Forget About

40:00 — A Hot Take on Private Medical

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Our festive episode reflecting on the first year of the Friends with Benefits podcast — plus Santa drops by with the world’s biggest benefit wishes.

In this Christmas Special, Carl and David look back on a standout first year for the Friends with Benefits podcast — from launching the format to hosting guests who challenged conventional thinking in reward and benefits.

The conversation covers reflections on standout episodes, why passion-led discussions matter more than scripted topics, and what themes are likely to dominate 2026. A surprise appearance from Santa (Seb) introduces a series of benefit “wishes” submitted by consultants, reward leaders, and managers — sparking honest discussion around AI, inclusion, pay transparency, engagement, and global complexity.

The episode closes with a look ahead to what’s shaping up to be a big year for benefits.

00:00 — Intro

00:39 — Reflecting on a Big First Year

01:00 — Why the Podcast Matters

01:41 — Letting Guests Talk About What They Care About

02:00 — A Standout Moment: Josephina from British Airways

02:34 — Purposeful Communication Over Noise

03:00 — Why Passion Creates Better Conversations

06:00 — Inclusion and Choice in Benefits

07:00 — Pay Transparency Is Coming (Whether You Like It or Not)

08:17 — Rethinking ‘Engagement’ in Benefits

09:19 — Global Complexity Isn’t Going Away

11:05 — Looking Ahead to 2026

Josephina Smith, Reward and Recognition Director at British Airways, joins Carl and David to explore the shift from financial wellbeing to financial empowerment — and why employers must think differently if they want people to make better financial decisions.

She breaks down the global design of BA’s award-winning financial empowerment program, the real drivers behind the pension gender gap, why reward must be seen as a value-creation function (not an admin one), and the mindset needed to successfully drive change inside a large organisation.

00:00 — Intro

00:45 — A Career Built on Change and Making a Difference

02:00 — Why Reward? Exposure, Emotion, and Influence

05:30 — Salary Sacrifice Reform: Cost, Uncertainty, Planning

08:45 — Why BA Chose Financial Empowerment Over Wellbeing

12:30 — Making It Global: No Copy-Paste Policies

15:30 — The Pension Gender Gap: A Systemic Problem

19:00 — Reward as a Strategic Function, Not Admin

23:00 — Risk, Reputation, and Legislative Awareness

28:00 — Change-Making: Courage and Intentionality

33:00 — Final Advice for Change Makers

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What happens when one of the earliest flexible-benefits pioneers looks at the industry today — and realises many of the same issues still haven’t been fixed?

Tony Nevin has spent over four decades in reward and benefits, working as an advisor, consultant, practitioner, entrepreneur, and one of the earliest team members at Thomsons (later Darwin, now Mercer).

Tony joins Carl and David to reflect on four decades in benefits — from the birth of flex, to the pitfalls of tech, to the ongoing struggles with admin, comms, and engagement.

They cover salary sacrifice reform, focus groups on factory floors, carers’ benefits, medical inflation, neurodiversity, and the hard truth that HR and finance often underestimate the strategic impact of benefits.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 — Intro

00:45 — 43 Years, a Green Suit, and an Accidental Career

02:00 — The Moment Flexible Benefits Were Born

03:30 — “The Problem Hasn’t Been Solved Yet”

05:30 — Salary Sacrifice: Easy for Government, Hard on Employees

08:45 — Engagement as the Real Bottom Line

12:30 — Benefits Aren’t Important… Unless You Make Them Important

16:00 — The Whiteboard Reality Check

19:00 — Carers Are the New Frontier of Workforce Support

23:30 — ADHD, Self-Understanding, and New Communication Patterns

27:00 — The 80% Open-Rate Email

30:30 — The Job, Defined Simply

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What happens when benchmarking becomes a comfort blanket — and the industry forgets what flexibility really means?

In this episode, Christina Alliak, Director of Benefits at Cohesity, joins Carl and David to explore how the industry got tangled up in comparison reports and legacy systems, and what it’ll take to build something better. Together, they dig into the messy middle between aspiration and reality — from flexible benefits dreams and ancient insurer tech to admin overload, prevention vs. intervention, and the one mistake that taught Christina her biggest lesson about communication.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 — Intro

03:30 — AI Everywhere (and the Boring Stuff It Should Fix)

05:00 — The Catch: How Do You Learn Without the Boring Work?

08:00 — Benchmarking Is Overrated

10:00 — The Dream of Open Data

13:00 — The Trap of Ease and Expectation

14:30 — Medical Inflation and the Benchmark Box

18:00 — Prevention Beats Intervention

20:00 — Flexibility: The Holy Grail

23:00 — The Dream Model

27:00 — The Marketplace Vision

29:00 — HR Tech, Product Thinking, and Delight

31:00 — The Hidden Cost of Admin

34:00 — Standards, APIs, and Stalemate

41:00 — What AI Needs to Work

43:00 — The Future (and AI Burnout)

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What happens when employee benefits get too complicated, too noisy — and people stop caring?

In this episode of Friends With Benefits, we sit down with Will Winter Smith, Reward Director at Halfords, to explore why traditional benefits strategies are no longer landing with today’s workforce. From private medical that “lost its way” to too many bolt-on products and confusing comms, Will shares a refreshingly honest look at what’s broken — and what actually gets people to engage.

00:00 — Engagement Is Key

03:00 — Private Medical Has Lost Its Way

08:00 — Product Overload and Noise

16:00 — Benchmarking and the Same-Same Trap

17:00 — We’re Retailers to Our Colleagues

21:00 — Guerrilla Marketing and Disruptive Moments

25:00 — ROI and Knowing When to Stop

31:00 — AI Is Like Teaching a Toddler Origami

38:00 — Culture and Trust Around AI

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What does it really look like when you build benefits with inclusion, equity, and integrity from someone who’s worked in both Big Tech and policy?

In this episode of Friends With Benefits, we sit down with Lee from Block (formerly at Google) to dig into what “equity by design” actually means in a global company. Lee shares honest lessons about balancing equality vs equity, navigating local trade‑offs, and why the numbers you benchmark with might mislead more than help.

00:00 — From Social Work to Global Benefits

14:00 — Beyond Tick-Box DEI

28:00 — Building Global Minimums That Scale

35:00 — Communication as an Equity Issue

39:00 — Can AI Help?

46:00 — Practical Steps for Inclusive BenefitsBe the first to know when new episodes drop!

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In this episode of Friends with Benefits, David sits down with global benefits leader Mark to break down the hard-earned lessons from rolling out benefits tech across 50+ countries.From why engagement isn’t just a comms problem to how AI could derail more than it helps, this episode gets into the operational realities most people don’t talk about.They unpack:— Why most global rollouts miss the mark on engagement— How to design for personalisation at scale— The role of consistency vs. autonomy across regions— Where AI fits in and where it really doesn’t— What benefits teams can learn from product teamsIf you’re navigating complexity, scaling strategy, or just trying to get your benefits platform actually used this one’s for you.Timestamps: 00:00 – Getting into Benefits03:50 – Health Benefits Are Underused08:15 – Benefits Are Designed, Not Just Delivered10:45 – The Local vs. Global Trap17:20 – Post-Launch is the Real Work21:50 – Measuring Impact24:40 – The Personalisation Gap36:00 – The Marketing Mindset43:50 – AI, Structure & Scale47:10 – Benefits ConfessionThanks for watching! Subscribe to our channel.

In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Carl and David are joined by Steve Bianchi ex-Unilever, now Chief People Officer at Autodoc. Steve brings his systems mindset, startup grit, and global experience to the table as they unpack everything from UK healthcare policy to why payroll is the most underused channel in benefits comms.

They discuss the limits of fairness, the value of radical transparency, the true cost of “workations,” and why benefit strategies need to move from one-size-fits-all to hyper-personalised at scale. No fluff just sharp, structured thinking from someone who’s built benefits from the ground up.

00:00 – Should companies fill NHS gaps?

08:00 – The real shift post-pandemic

10:00 – Why prevention gets ignored

14:00 – Reimagining the value of healthcare

15:00 – How to build a benefits strategy from scratch

19:00 – Recognition as a benefit

25:00 – Career frameworks as proprietary benefits

27:00 – Trust and transparency over fairness

30:00 – The problem with intangible rewards

35:00 – What matters changes with life stage

38:00 – Why we’re failing on comms

40:00 – Hyper-personalisation is already here

44:00 – Should performance-based benefits exist?

49:00 – What great rewards leaders do now

52:00 – Steve’s Benefit Confession

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In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Carl and David sit down with Jo Viana, Director of Global Benefits at Eventbrite, to get real about what it takes to build benefits that actually matter especially when you’re supporting people across 9+ countries. They dive into the messy realities of global equity, the limits of utilisation metrics, why mental health needs more than a tick-box, and how communication can make or break your benefits strategy. It’s honest, sharp, and full of lessons from someone who's doing the work.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Meet Joana & the Eventbrite landscape

04:30 – The equity balancing act

08:00 – Mental health: usage ≠ impact

15:00 – Breaking stigma through storytelling

22:00 – Making benefits visible

26:00 – AI, access, and cautious optimism

37:00 – When redundancy matters

41:00 – Benefits Confession

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