Friends with Benefits

In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Dino Bertolis, founder of CycleSaver, argues that the biggest problem with most benefits programmes isn't a lack of generosity. It's a lack of friction. Dino joins Carl and David to make the case that removing every barrier to a benefit doesn't always drive take-up. Benefits that ask employees for a small amount of effort often get used more th...

In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Gregg Hall, Senior Compensation and Benefits Manager at Santander, argues that most financial wellbeing programmes are built on the wrong assumptions — and miss the people who need help most. Gregg joins Carl and David to push back on how the industry talks about financial wellbeing. Most programmes are designed for people who are already doing fine — guid...

Most global benefits transformations are planned in quarters. They're lived in years. In this episode of Friends With Benefits, Carl and David sit down with Adam Newton — Head of Reward at Fastmarkets — for an honest account of what a 15-month global benefits implementation actually involved. The ambition, the friction, the Finland moment, and what he'd do differently. Adam has spent his e...

Companies spend 10–30% of payroll on benefits. Most of them manage it in Excel. In this episode of Friends With Benefits, Carl and David sit down with Peter Varga — EMEA Total Rewards Delivery Associate Director at Kyndryl — to talk about why global benefits administration is still structurally underfunded, and what it actually takes to change that. Peter has 20 years in HR Shared Services. He bui...

Fertility benefits aren’t “nice to have” anymore — they’re becoming a retention strategy. Aatish Pattani, Senior Director and Global Head of Rewards at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, joins Carl and David to unpack the rising cost of healthcare, why two in five employees would switch jobs for fertility support, and how global reward teams should be preparing for pay transparency. From medical inflation t...

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 profes...

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 refle...

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 r...

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 o...

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...

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 re...

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‑o...

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 m...

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 transpar...

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...

Benefits are bloated. Data is broken. ROI is murky. But people still need support that works . In this episode of Friends with Benefits , we're joined by John Whitaker, Senior Director of International Benefits at Workday. From decluttering bloated benefit portfolios to the real reasons wellbeing ROI is so hard to prove, John brings a refreshingly honest view of what actually matters in the benefi...

In the very first episode of Friends with Benefits , Carl and David kick things off by diving into the tangled world of employee benefits and why it’s getting harder for companies to get it right. They share their own career journeys, but more importantly, they lay the foundation for the conversations to come: honest chats with reward leaders, brokers, and consultants who are shaping the future of...