Beyond Base Pay: CCRC’s CHRO on Total Rewards, Pay Equity, and Financial Wellness

Summary

If employees only focus on base pay, they miss the true value of their compensation.

Lisseth Zouhbi, Chief Human Resources Officer at Child Care Resource Center, breaks down how her team is demystifying total rewards for a large, fast-growing nonprofit.

With 25 years in HR—including two decades in luxury hospitality—and as a co-author of Latinas Rising Up in Human Resources (Executive Edition) and United Latinas (Vol. 3), Lisseth shares a practical blueprint: build clear total reward statements, equip managers to communicate them, and design benefits through a multigenerational, life-stage lens.

She details CCRC’s approach to competitive pay in nonprofits, maintaining internal equity through every hire and promotion, and pairing health benefits with financial wellness education.

Expect actionable tactics—from leveraging Workday and broker partners to a simple 30-day money experiment—plus the metrics that matter: lower turnover, stronger equity, and broader talent attraction.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Lisseth’s 25-year HR journey: from luxury hospitality to CHRO at CCRC

[01:51] – Writing and representation: Latinas Rising Up in HR and United Latinas

[02:30] – Early money lessons: first paycheck, first checking account, and independence

[05:13] – Convenience vs. cost: valuing time (the “ugly sweater” story)

[06:57] – Designing total rewards by life stage and educating beyond base pay

[09:45] – Building total rewards statements in Workday and training managers to explain them

[13:06] – Competing for talent in a growing nonprofit; inflation and internal pay equity

[15:00] – Health + financial wellness: webinars, education, and a 30-day money experiment

Takeaways

- Build and share total rewards statements so employees see employer-paid value (retirement match, insurance, and more).

- Train managers with plain-language guides and FAQs to explain comp and benefits confidently.

- Design benefits through a multigenerational lens—offer options that fit life stage, not one-size-fits-all.

- Monitor equity continuously: analyze internal pay with every hire/promotion and benchmark against market data.

- Pair health benefits with financial wellness education to reduce stress and boost benefit utilization.

- Try a 30-day expense-tracking reflection to align spending with values and goals.

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/