Summary

How do you make compensation and benefits clear, valued, and equitable when 40,000+ seasonal employees rotate in and out each year?

Kristen Ynclan, VP of Total Rewards at Vail Resorts, shares how storytelling, transparency, and community-based wellness turn “programs” into real value for a frontline workforce.

Starting with her “silver dollar” money memory, Kristen explains why the message behind rewards matters as much as the mechanics.

She details Vail’s unique wellness model—two licensed clinical psychologists on the Total Rewards team and onsite wellness coordinators at resorts—built on the belief that connection is prevention.

Kristen also breaks down the shift to agile rewards as roles become more fluid, why operating models should drive tech (not the other way around), and how AI is freeing leaders to better support the frontline.

She closes with practical guardrails for pay equity and a 30-day data deep dive any leader can run to improve fairness, engagement, and outcomes.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Guest intro: Kristen’s path to VP of Total Rewards and diverse industry background

[01:07] – The “silver dollar” lesson: storytelling gives rewards their meaning

[02:40] – First paycheck and the value of earned money (and a unionized first job)

[04:27] – On “embarrassing” purchases and what we value (the 200K-piece LEGO lesson)

[05:23] – Making Total Rewards understood: clarity, transparency, and constant retelling

[08:47] – Vail’s wellness model: clinical psychologists, onsite coordinators, and “connection is prevention”

[10:21] – Impact: employee and guest engagement rise when you invest in frontline wellbeing

[13:04] – The future: agile compensation and benefits for multi-hat roles and workforce management

[14:32] – Tools and AI: let the operating model lead; use AI to remove admin drag and increase connection

[17:19] – Pay equity guardrails: robust talent reviews to counter bias

[18:57] – A 30-day experiment: dive into headcount data and meet leaders to translate insights into action

Takeaways

- Tell the story of rewards—explain the “why” so employees see the silver-dollar value, not just the dollars.

- Build community-based wellness: onsite coordinators and proactive support can lift engagement and safety.

- Design agile rewards for fluid, shift-based, multi-skill work; align pay and benefits with real contributions.

- Choose operating models before tools; use AI to streamline documentation and free time for frontline support.

- Strengthen pay equity with cross-team talent reviews, transparent criteria, and challengeable assessments.

- Run a 30-day data deep dive: analyze headcount and pay patterns, then meet leaders to turn insights into action.

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/