Beyond the Paycheck

Summary What does it take to rebuild salary planning in eight weeks? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willcok Jones talks with Nicholas Lassalle, Director of Total Rewards at QinetiQ, about launching an SAP compensation module in two months, why the ROI of people investments shows up in the employee experience rather than the spreadsheet, and why so many employees leave free mon...

Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock sits down with Sarah Gonzalez, SVP of Total Rewards at Switch, the hyperscaler building the data centers powering today's AI boom. Sarah traces her path from a self described "late bloomer" who fell in love with compensation, the place where the math nerds of HR end up, to a leader scaling total rewards inside a high growth compan...

Summary Patrick Lopez, Head of HR at CMIT Solutions, joins host Kelsey on Beyond the Paycheck for a conversation that runs from a teenager's first paycheck to the future of work in the age of AI. Patrick shares how a 10-disc CD changer and an unexpectedly small JCPenney check taught him about taxes at 16, why he still sees new hires learn that same lesson, and how his money story shaped the way he...

Summary   On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey sits down with Pam Tavilla, Head of People at Leyton, a global consulting and professional services firm. Drawing on nearly 20 years in HR, Pam makes the case that the line between work and personal life has dissolved, and that supporting employees means supporting their whole day, financial, mental, and physical. She explains why finan...

Summary On this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock sits down with Ken Wechsler, VP of Total Rewards at Akamai Technologies, to dig into why the most measurable parts of a pay package are often the least differentiating. Ken makes the case that comp is the "sexier side" of rewards but benefits are what build loyalty, that financial stress quietly destroys engagement, and that the best b...

Summary Beyond the Paycheck sits down with Tia Larsen, Director of Benefits at FJ Management, to trace the compensation comprehension gap back to its source: a financial literacy system that never taught employees how to read a pay package. Tia draws on 16 years managing benefits, a portfolio of 16,500 employees across six industries, and her own experience of living paycheck to paycheck to make t...

Summary In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey sits down with Tim Goodchild, Director of International Benefits at Take-Two Interactive (parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, and Zynga), to dig into what's actually broken in employee benefits. Tim's argument: the packages are often strong, but most employees don't understand what they have. With nearly 20 years in HR across AOL, the BBC, T...

Summary On Beyond the Paycheck, Kelsey Willock talks with Preet Michelson, Chief People Officer at Morgan Street Holdings and its operating company TMS, about why benefits programs break down at the communication line, not the budget line. Preet makes the case that financial wellbeing is the next frontier of workplace wellness, as overdue for normalization as physical and mental health once were....

Summary One in two employees at BambooHR said they didn't understand how their compensation was determined. After a single mandatory compensation 101 training, that number flipped—nearly 90% said they now understood.  Engagement scores went up year over year. No new spend. No new vendor. Just education. In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Alex Bertin, Head of Total Rewards at BambooHR,...

Summary Hollie Delaney, Chief People Officer at Power Home Remodeling, shares the financial independence lesson she absorbed at age 9, her 25-year career arc from Zappos to Power, and her framework for what total compensation really means. She breaks down where employees lose financial ground, why quality-of-life math matters more than salary alone, and how Power builds benefits that actually move...

Summary Jessica O'Leary runs benefits for 3,000+ employees across a charter school network in Dallas-Fort Worth. Her framework: treat every dollar of employee premium like your own. That means negotiating free behavioral health coaching through Cigna, building a maternity leave financial planning workshop, and creating total rewards statements that show teachers exactly where their compensation do...

Summary Allison King runs total rewards at a national healthcare system where the pay gap between front-line staff and physicians spans six figures. After surveying 150+ employees, she found the real problem wasn't the benefits package—it was that no one understood what they already had. Physicians recommended benefits Sound already offered. Staff earning $50K and doctors clearing $300K needed rad...

Summary Melissa Zaino runs global benefits at Zayo Group, a fiber company competing with Google and Verizon. Her team serves 2,600 employees—half of them field technicians. She's also someone who once got underwater with credit cards and entered a consumer credit counseling program, an experience that still shapes how she thinks about financial stress at work. In this conversation, she explains wh...

Summary A company rolls out a $200/month wellness stipend with the best of intentions. It lands in employees' paychecks alongside everything else. Nobody changes their behavior. Claims don't go down. The intent was real, but without structure, there's no return.  In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Trice Stevenson-Wright, VP of People Operations and Total Rewards at Alma, for a sharp co...

Summary The Mayo Clinic once surveyed its employees and found a 17% positive perception of pay. A year later, after running better enablement and transparency sessions—without spending a single additional dollar on comp—that number climbed to 80%.  That story says a lot about what's actually broken in total rewards, and it's exactly the kind of thing Chris Toney thinks about every day.  In this ep...

Summary A pharmaceutical company was about to roll out student loan repayment—until they actually looked at the data and realized it was the parents and grandparents carrying the loans, not their employees.  That one insight changed everything about how they approached financial wellness. In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Tom Ellis, VP of Total Rewards at Emplify Health, who has spent...

Summary A hotel company with 120 properties across the country went from 20% open enrollment engagement to over 85% in a single year—and 21 properties hit 100%. The trick wasn't a new platform or a bigger budget. It was handing ownership to local leaders and a little friendly competition. In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Brian Sosa, Director of Benefits at Crestline Hotels and Resort...

Summary What does a first confession in 1980s Arizona have to do with how a Chief People Officer thinks about pay and benefits today? More than you'd expect. In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Ann Watson, Chief People Officer at Cover Genius, for an honest, humane conversation about money, empathy, and the quiet benefits that change people's lives. Ann leads people operations for a glo...

Summary Most employees don't think about their benefits until something goes wrong—and by then, they've already forgotten the open enrollment presentation, the brainshark, and the guide they skimmed in October.  In this episode, Kelsey Willock sits down with Chloe Jones, Executive Director of Global Benefits at CACI International, for an honest conversation about where benefits delivery actually b...

Summary What if the secret to building a thriving workforce started with a five-year-old saving a dollar a day? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Charmion "Charm" Patton, Chief Human Resources Officer at Hillsborough County Public Schools and a 25-year HR generalist, to explore how personal money lessons shape the way leaders design benefits that actually transform lives.  Dr. Patton shares th...

What happens when you stop assuming what employees need and actually ask them?  Pamela J. Brown, EVP and Head of People & Culture at Crunch Fitness, joins Beyond the Paycheck to share how she's transforming the employee experience across 550+ gym locations in six countries. From implementing a 401(k) with match after an inaugural engagement survey to making Crunch Fitness the only big-box gym...

Summary What if the biggest obstacle to your employees' financial well-being isn't their salary — it's that they don't understand what they already have? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock sits down with Erin Desrosiers, CCP, Compensation and Benefits Leader at HOK, the global architecture and design firm with 1,700+ employees across 27 offices.  Erin brings over a decade...

Summary High-deductible plans were meant to save money—but for many employees, they’ve created “functional uninsured” risk and delayed care that drives bigger costs later. Tom Armani, most recently Director of Global Benefits at Dayforce and a 20+ year benefits leader, unpacks how employers can reverse the affordability crisis while improving outcomes. He explains why self-funded benefits should b...

Summary How do you help employees make smarter healthcare decisions in a system that’s anything but consumer-friendly? Nick Getz, National Director of Underwriting & Innovation, Employee Benefits at The Baldwin Group, breaks down how employers can communicate value, drive preventive care, and control rising costs—without overwhelming their people. The Baldwin Group is one of the fastest-growin...

Shiny offer letters don't build trust—clear education and consistent execution do. Nick Oliveri, Senior Director of Total Rewards at Silicon Labs (a 1,800-person global semiconductor company with 18 locations), shares a practical playbook for modern compensation and benefits. Grounded in the belief that every dollar represents someone's effort, Nick explains why the biggest breakdowns happen in ed...