A wave of innovation is changing the employment benefits landscape, enabling employers to increase their support for employees' health and financial wellness in new and vital ways. Now, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), data analytics and improved access to benefits platforms have the potential to transform how employers design and deliver health and financial wellness benefits to employees.
In this Employee Benefits News LEADERS episode, Scott Rodney, Director of HR & Payroll at Bartaco and Heather Newton, Director of HR Talent and Training at Child & Family Center sit down with editor-in-chief Alyssa Place to share their perspective on this topic.
Key points include:
- The personalized health benefits that HR leaders find most favorable for utilization
- What HR leaders find most concerning about wellness data and privacy concerns
- How employers are leveraging data to make better benefit purchasing decisions
- How technology and generations impact financial wellness benefits being offered
- The strategic priority to providing a consolidated benefits strategy
Transcription:
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.
Alyssa Place (00:16):
Welcome to Today's Leader Panel, future Proofing Health and Wellness Benefits, employer Criteria for the next three to five years. I'm Alyssa Place, editor in Chief of Employee Benefit News, and I'm joined today by two top benefit leaders, Scott Rodney, director of HR and payroll at Bar Taco and Heather Newton, director of HR Talent and training at the Child and Family Center. Thank you both for joining me today.
Scott Rodney (00:37):
Thank You.
Heather Newton (00:37):
Good to be here.
Alyssa Place (00:39):
So obviously the world of work is continuing to evolve and change from expectations from employees to even regulatory and economic shifts, and that's really leaving benefit managers and HR leaders with the challenge of rethinking what benefits look like to meet a lot of those evolving needs. It's really going well beyond just the basic healthcare and retirement program. So we're going to be talking about ways to personalize benefits and how benefits are being used to support employees and connect to the values of your organizations too. And that also comes with a lot of challenges and cost considerations for you all. There's also compliance challenges and making sure that your benefits and policies are equitable. So a lot of stuff to dig into and I'm really excited to dive in with both of you. So I want to start by level setting a little bit and seeing where those top areas that are driving change in benefits administration and how are things like rising costs really shaping your strategy when it comes to those benefit considerations? Heather, why don't we start with you?
Heather Newton (01:42):
Yeah, I'll jump in. So cost is definitely a consideration. It's gone up every year. We had a pretty high price increase last year with during COVID, and this year luckily it wasn't too bad, but that's definitely been a factor because we're a nonprofit, we have kind of a limit to what we can afford for benefits, so that makes it a challenge. But we do also have a big focus on wellness for our employees. So we offer a high deductible plan, which helps with costs nothing out of pocket for the employee. We offer an HSA account, so that really helps, and I think a lot of employers are kind of adding that to their benefits package because it is lower cost versus a traditional plan where you have a copay, but it's a big monthly cost.
Scott Rodney (02:26):
So
Heather Newton (02:26):
That's one way that we're kind of helping to limit costs on the health side.
Scott Rodney (02:31):
I think to add onto that, I think wellness right now is huge for us. I think that's where we're leaning into more employees want to see themselves in those experiences or those benefits that you're offering. I would say. So when they're active in their personal life and then their employer comes in and does a wellness activity, whether it's running or out in the field day, they see themselves and they want to participate. So we're leaning more into that. But when it comes to rising costs to add on, we do have two high deductible plans and two plans. So I do feel like we have a variety of people that are younger that go to the high deductible plans and get those HSAs and those tax savings and we have a match. And then there's more people like me where I don't want the risk in my medical, I want to pay what I pay out of my paycheck and then pay my copayment. So it really just depends on what you want, but I think having that menu of options has been great for our population since it's mainly Gen Z, a more millennial, but I think it's really working.
Alyssa Place (03:35):
Yeah, I mean the multi-generational workforce is certainly a challenge. I mean, there are some organizations that have up to, I think five generations now and obviously the way that their health needs are certainly very different and how they're engaging in those plans is very different. Are you seeing that in your employee population, that spread of generational divide?
Heather Newton (03:57):
Yes. I mean we have all four generations. We have primarily millennials and Gen X, but we do have boomers and we do have more and more Gen Z. So we see that they have very different needs. One thing we have done besides offering the traditional and the high deductible plans is we started adding those indemnity plans like in hospitalization coverage, critical illness, accident coverage. So if you do have a high deductible plan and something happens, then you have that coverage and it's not very costly. You're talking under $20 a paycheck and you have that extra help financially if something does happen and it's not costing you a fortune and you can add your whole family on there. So that's been really good to kind of help support those who are on the higher deductible plans. And to add on what you were saying, really focusing on wellness, doing wellness challenges, we put all our benefits into the eight pillars of wellness and did a presentation to show our employees how we're supporting their wellness in different areas, from financial to social to health to mental, I think I already said financial. So there's a lot of areas that we offer support in and I think that's really key when you have so many generations in the workforce is making sure you have that menu.
(05:18):
Yeah,
Scott Rodney (05:19):
Similar, we look at wellness in four buckets, a little more simple aspect of financial wellness, social and mental. And right now we have a wellness campaign, preventative care after the plan year started, we're a nine one plan year employer. And so I think that also does throw in there when it comes to we're paying our claims and we're using Cigna's network where we want to really focus on preventative care. So hoping maybe towards the end of the plan year they're getting their preventative care now in the beginning of the plan year, and we're incentivizing, we use Cigna Wellness dollars to really push a lot of our programs and we're doing up to eight or nine prizes for anyone that participates. And you also don't have to be on our insurance to participate. I feel like why not just have fun and make it fun for you? Go get your eye checkup or your stress check, go get a therapy session, have a really good time talking to them, whoever your provider is. So I think really leaning into that, and I think going back to the generations where Gen Z, they're really big into mental health. They want mental health and more of the older people, I guess you would say more financial. So they're doing 10, 12% into their 401k at the beginning of the year. So it really just depends and really trying to really reach everyone best we can.
Alyssa Place (06:38):
Yeah, I love that idea of the menu of benefits. I mean that's certainly aligned with what you do in the hospitality industry, but what's on that menu today? I mean, beyond what you're talking about with the traditional health plans, you mentioned mental health, financial wellness, what are people looking for when they're coming to you and asking for support?
Heather Newton (07:01):
Flexibility and time off is another big one, especially for millennials and Gen Z. Millennials are raising families, taking care of older parents in some cases, sometimes both. I've seen both in our employees and they really need that flexibility. The hybrid work schedule, the ability to take enough time off. So we have a vacation plan that increases with tenure, so it starts with two weeks a year and goes up from there. And that way the longer you're with us, you can have up to five, six weeks of vacation, which is significant. And then we give all the major holidays so that way it kind of aligns with school schedules and winter break even. We take a wellness week between Christmas and New Year's. So kind of all of those things help to support that.
Alyssa Place (07:46):
So Scott, what's on your menu of benefits at Bar right now?
Scott Rodney (07:49):
It ranges from social benefits to financial benefits, wellness, everything. I think something I was really excited to bring to our organization brand was Duolingo, where I saw whether it's a line cook or a dishwasher prep cook that maybe English is not their first language and they aspire to be a chef or they aspire to be a bartender and they want to make fresh margaritas for our guests. I thought Duolingo was a great opportunity to give them a free benefit to learn whether it was English or another language that would help them in work or outside of work, maybe they're a single parent and they need the confidence to go and have that PTA meeting, something like that. So we brought Duolingo and it's been really successful. We have Headspace, which is a great mental health benefit that offers therapy and work-life coaching. And I think something that I've been seeing a lot with new parents is the dependent care through Navia, who's our F-S-A-H-S-A provider.
(08:46):
And I think to add onto that, the feedback we're getting is more childcare. Childcare has been a very hot topic and a lot of feedback, whether you're a single parent or two parent household childcare is very expensive in this country and I'm really happy, at least the dependent care limit just went up for 2026 to $7,500 a year, which I still don't think that's enough. It needs to be more. So I think we're seeing more and more feedback, and that's the best part about it. We take the feedback, we see if we can do it, if we can do it, great. So it's just really listening to our team.
Alyssa Place (09:21):
Yeah, I love that. I mean, it's so interesting to hear you say listening to your employees. You thought of Duolingo. I mean that's a little bit outside the box. So how do you continue to push yourself to think outside that box, especially when you have so many pressures surrounding you, what are some of the ways that you challenge yourself to broaden your horizons on what's available in the benefit space?
Heather Newton (09:44):
I'll jump in. That reminded me of our professional development. I think that's not always considered a benefit, but it really is. And a lot of our staff are mental health therapists. We are a mental health agency, so they're working on getting licensed, so we provide benefits for that. We probably pay time off to study for their exam, which is really great. A full week you can just study for your big test. We pay for their licensure, we pay for their registration fees every year, and then we offer a stipend so you can use it for anything you want to gain skills in each year. That's for all of our employees, not just our clinicians. So I think that's really important, and especially for Gen Z that have different expectations than the older generations, they don't really want to work their way up. So the faster they can get there, the better.
Scott Rodney (10:34):
I think to add on, we have for all of our restaurant support employees and our managers, we do masterclass at work and it's a wonderful leadership and development program that someone from our l and d team does quarterly sessions on, whether we're talking about AI in the workforce or we're talking about perception is reality, whatever it is that's relevant to our industry. We're doing really fun masterclass at work sessions.
Alyssa Place (11:02):
And obviously what you offer is very important, but how you make sure that employees really know about this is also very important. So how are you getting employees to understand that they have all these benefits? Does that start when you're interviewing them? What's the process like when you have this suite of benefits? How are you getting in front of employees with them?
Scott Rodney (11:23):
I think I'll start off, it's a struggle. I'm not going to lie. It is a struggle. It is finding the medium to reach them. They're not going to read my emails.
(11:33):
They're so busy, whether it's an employee or a manager, whatever it may be, they're always inundated with emails on email. So we have a time and attendance system that I have found is the best source to reach people. It is a one channel announcement where you can just send out a blast and it reaches them. And then me being in the markets and being in the locations, being the face of benefits for the company. And I also think I'm really proud of whether my C-suite, my CEO and my chief people officer, they're always talking about the things we're offering. So it's not just coming from me, it's coming from the top. And I think that's really, really important.
Heather Newton (12:11):
Yeah, that's such a struggle to make sure that everyone understands because there's a lot of things and a lot of times they're just like, I just didn't even realize we had that. We offer our concierge to help you find childcare, but I guess a lot of our employees aren't aware of it. And we try to, we've found that we have to really communicate in different ways. So we do it during the interview process, during new hire orientation, my payroll and benefits coordinator meets with all the new hires to kind of explain the benefits and go over everything. And then we push out regular reminders like, Hey, don't forget if you are looking for childcare, we have this option. Don't forget, you can enroll in the FSA or we do HR workshops to just talk about the different benefits. And then I don't know if you do anything like all staff meetings, but we do those quarterly and that's always a good time because you have everyone's,
Scott Rodney (13:01):
We call it the state of the taco, we do the state of the taco quarterly meetings where we really focus on more ops operations as we're a restaurant brand. We really want to focus on what ops is really going on. But yeah, it's a fun time to highlight those as well. Anytime I can get in front of an audience of leaders or all of our managers, I'm always in there dropping something. Like I was on a call the other day of just a reminder preventative care coming on this quarter. So whenever you can do it, but it's a struggle.
Alyssa Place (13:32):
And do you think that, obviously open enrollment is coming up and there's also certain themed months. Is that something that you really rely on too, like financial wellness month or women's mental health month? I mean is that sort of a strategy that you've deployed or that's maybe more of an outdated?
Scott Rodney (13:50):
I would say it's a mix, especially on our brand in our industry going on that month because holidays really drive people into restaurants. So for us, our busiest day is May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, so I know that is mental health month awareness. So I do want to always make everything I do operations focused. So I'll probably lean more towards the mental health part the later in the month because our teams are planning for a celebration and a party and a vibe on Cinco de Mayo. So I just want to always like to know what's going on so I can really make sure it's focused on operations.
Alyssa Place (14:25):
Yeah, that's an interesting strategy. I don't think you want to be like if you're so depressed on SGO de Maya, that's supposed to be the, they can do with the marrus and tacos.
Heather Newton (14:35):
We actually have used some of the months to coincide with our wellness challenges. We usually do a may miles challenge, so two miles a day, that's all you have to do to be entered to win a prize, you have to offer a prize when you do it.
Alyssa Place (14:49):
I love the gamification. You mentioned that as well. That's a really powerful motivator for people. Makes
Heather Newton (14:55):
It fun. Wellness doesn't have to be
Scott Rodney (14:57):
A prize.
Heather Newton (14:58):
Exactly. What are the prizes? It could be a gift card, a free car wash, because we have a onsite car wash every other week, so
Scott Rodney (15:07):
Gift
Heather Newton (15:07):
Certificates.
Scott Rodney (15:08):
Okay, I'm coming California.
Alyssa Place (15:11):
That's one I have never heard before. An onsite car wash. I think that is new.
Heather Newton (15:15):
Yeah, you just find a mobile car wash company that's willing to come out and give you a discount for your employees. And then we give out certificates for prizes, challenges. It's a big hit.
Alyssa Place (15:28):
Well, I do want to transition a little bit to talk about some cost containment strategies. Obviously we're talking about all these ideas and those do cost moRodney and you're dealing with budgets and certainly perhaps even pinched budgets as we're looking, as you mentioned earlier, the healthcare costs. So I wanted to ask about how can you or other employers really balance that idea of personalization with cost control and all the administrative complexity that also comes with offering all these benefits? What are your strategies for that?
Scott Rodney (15:57):
It's hard. It's hard, especially in industry where turnover is high. We can do the best we can do to do, and I like to use the word talent sustainability. We just had someone new start in our brand and she brought that word up to me and I was like, I love that because I feel like that's anyone in restaurant on the backside of really supporting all of operations. And our goal is to make sure that we sustain our talent in every way. So it is really hard to the end. We're nine one for open enrollment, so we already had ours, so we're starting earlier in the year when we're looking at budgets for stuff. But I think I would just say again, we lean into Cigna, Cigna's a really great medical partner and we use their wellness funds to fund a lot of our supplemental benefits, I would say.
Alyssa Place (16:43):
Yeah. Do you feel that the power of a partnership there?
Heather Newton (16:46):
Yeah, we use Kaiser and they have really great benefits. We get the calm app, we get Headspace free, probably not the full function, but it's a great benefit and I think it's definitely a challenge for us being a nonprofit and we're in government funded, we only can spend so much on benefits, but any employer, you can set your budget and then a lot of the additional benefits can be at the employee's cost and don't have to be that expensive. Those additional plans I mentioned before, hospital coverage, they're not very expensive, but adding those really gives you that menu feature where you can customize things. And then wellness challenges, things like that are time but not financially. Gift cards and all that is not very expensive. So those little things, it's the investment is really the time.
Scott Rodney (17:38):
I would add on, I think you just mentioned some benefits that our team members that I really like to hone in on and my favorite are short-term and long-term disability benefits. I think those benefits are very underrated for new families. Maybe they're in a state that doesn't have paid family leave, where disability insurance, when they say that word, they don't really understand it. So it's really breaking down what is short-term or long-term disability. And they're rainy day insurances in some instances. So I always push and promote those because you never know what's going to happen and those are the type of benefits like you mentioned, that are going to be there for the employee and they are very low cost considering what is paid out when they need to take that disability insurance.
Alyssa Place (18:20):
And have you considered looking at other types of healthcare plans, alternative funding or value-based care arrangements? Is that something that's come up as you're making these considerations?
Scott Rodney (18:30):
We have. I think because we have 33 locations nationwide, I think it's really hard since we're not all in an office setting, it's really hard to do those types of other types of medical plans where it's within just one network or I would love to do also blood drives or checkup drives, but it's hard to bring that to a restaurant. So I think those just don't fit well for our brand.
Alyssa Place (18:57):
Yeah, I think that's important for you to recognize that too, to realize that not every option is going to be the right fit. So what happens when you are evaluating a benefit or looking at a healthcare plan and it might check three of the boxes but not all five or something. How are you deciding that it's going to work or not going to work?
Heather Newton (19:19):
For us, it's looking at the options and then getting a good option, a lower cost, maybe a little more out of pocket for the employee, and then a really low cost option. So kind of having three, so if you want really comprehensive coverage, but it's a lot per month or do you want pay nothing per month, but there's out-of-pocket cost if you have something happen. So I think having the range is good and that's kind of the best option when prices are so high.
Scott Rodney (19:50):
I think our brand has been with Cigna for five plus years now and they're used to the network. And I think when you look at the cost, our cost has increased for the last two years. The year before was extremely high. This year was really a lovely low increase. And I think you also look at disruption reports. We have no idea really what's going on in someone's life and what they're using it for. I can see a lot but at very high level. So I don't want to disrupt a family that's going through care when they're already in network and then they're on this disruption report, I can get a better price. So I think you really have to look at it from a people first sometimes, which I know is hard when you're looking at cost, but I think we do a really good job at that. And I partner with my chief people officer and my CFO when we are really looking at plans year to year.
Alyssa Place (20:41):
So I want to dig in a little more into financial wellness. That can also really be a through line to some of these wellness topics that we're talking about as well. So I wanted to ask you about what types of support you're offering in the realm of retirement and student loan repayment. What are the emerging trends or current benefits that you offer in those areas?
Heather Newton (21:00):
Yeah, we offer a 401k and we give a company match. We've added disaster distributions because of the fires in California. There's also other reasons employees can take out moRodney if they need to in an urgent situation. For example, they're going to be displaced from their home, you can take out moRodney. So they kind of have that as a resource to use those funds if they need to. And then we offer loans from the 401k, so low interest loans and then a lot of education around debt management. There's monthly webinars. Our financial advisor provides a yearly kind of check-in with the employees answers, questions I can meet with him individually. That's a really good resource. And then we're also looking at secure Act 2.0, adding the provision where student loan payments count as contributions for the match.
Scott Rodney (21:58):
There's
Heather Newton (21:58):
Been some administrative things to figure out on the plan side, so it hasn't been implemented yet, but we're looking at seeing how we could add that because that's huge. Most of our employees do have student debt. You need a master's degree to be a therapist.
Scott Rodney (22:12):
Oh, wow.
Heather Newton (22:13):
It's a lot of school debt.
Scott Rodney (22:15):
So we have a really lovely 401k plan with a very nice match. We also have the loans as well, and you can see the uptick in those. We're a weekly payroll company, so I do find that as a benefit of you being paid weekly and not having to wait biweekly or monthly. So I really do love that when we tell people we're weekly, they're like weekly every week. I'm like, yes, every week I think we have a very rich EP employer assistance program with New York Life, and there's a really robust financial assistance in there, whether you are looking for a will or you need some type of thing. There's a huge menu of options that are free for people to do. And then I think HSA FSAs, I really hone in on those. I will say I would say more than 50% have a high deductible plan. If I look at between the PPOs and the high deductibles, I would say at least 50% of our people enrolled have those because they're taking advantage of the HSAs and the FSAs and really investing that moRodney and using that.
Alyssa Place (23:19):
And I wanted to also talk about the role of technology because especially when we're talking about benefit implementation, technology has just played such a huge role in that. And you're talking about a dispersed workforce, you have a lot of locations. So how are you both using technology both from a benefits engagement side, but also just from an implementation standpoint when it comes to getting some of these programs off the ground?
Scott Rodney (23:43):
I would say we're talking about more AI or
Alyssa Place (23:47):
I think, yeah, I mean I would love to know how you've embraced technology and is AI playing a role?
Scott Rodney (23:52):
I would say AI is currently not playing a role in my day-to-day benefits admin. I would say I'm using more AI on the HR employee relations side of helping organize notes or analyzing employee surveys to really get a high level understanding of three 400 answers and compiling it into the top 10, something like that. So we're not really using it on that front, but I would say we're using technology in the best way that we can that with the partners that we have. It really depends sometimes on the partners and what their technology is, but as much as we can,
Heather Newton (24:30):
Similar for us, we aren't using AI on the benefits side. Our payroll providers integrated with our partners so they can do everything electronically. But I have noticed, especially having such a multi-generational workforce, some employees really want to talk through it with someone, really need a little bit more assistance. And so something, I know there's AI programs that can recommend benefits, and that's something we'll be looking at in the future. I know right now they're very expensive, but over the next few years I'm sure the costs will go down. That could be something that is useful, but I think there will still be that need for help me figure out what I need because I don't understand this. That's always going to be a need.
Alyssa Place (25:15):
And that element of confusion, I mean I think it might be sort of difficult then to really understand is this benefit working? If there's still confusion around are they using it or how often are they using it? So how are you measuring an ROI on a benefit that you've implemented? What tools do you use and what metrics are you looking at? I
Scott Rodney (25:32):
Would look at it twofolds in a way of employee experience, actually having a conversation with somebody that's using Duolingo. For an example, I was at one of our locations in Connecticut a couple weeks ago or a couple months ago, and this linco came up to me and just thanked me. I was like, I've never met this person in my life, but the way that he said thank me. And I was like, what's going on? He's like, well, you signed me up for Duolingo almost nine, 10 months ago, and here I am talking to you in English. And I was taken aback by that. So I think that is one thing right there of just being like that is completely worth everything that we're investing in our people. And I think the other is actually looking at enrollment in usage and the high numbers when it comes to a lot of the programs that we have. So we're looking at that on a monthly and quarterly basis to reevaluate if we're going to continue using 'em or not.
Heather Newton (26:23):
I love that. And those employee experience testimonials are so helpful to see
Scott Rodney (26:31):
They've
Heather Newton (26:31):
Actually used it and it was helpful for them. So that's one thing we look at. We look at a lot of data, we'll look at the usage reports. Something we added that really wasn't very successful that we thought was going to be a big hit was pet insurance, but we just did not get much enrollment. There were so many pets adopted during COVID and it just wasn't. So looking at the data, it was like, okay, well that flopped, but data, employee experience, also retention. Because we're a nonprofit, we're not paying the highest salaries. People come to us for the culture, the mission, and we have a pretty good benefits package. So if that's working, then we should see good retention and less turnover.
Alyssa Place (27:16):
I really like that, that you're actually hearing from the employees. I think I would have a hard time not seeing something working in terms of a mental health benefit or something. How do you measure someone who's not necessarily going to be healed or cured or anything like that? So how do you manage your expectations when it comes to that? You're spending a lot of moRodney, you want, you're spending a lot of time and effort. How do you manage your expectations around what success looks like with these programs?
Scott Rodney (27:43):
I think first is listening. Maybe a year or two you're doing a survey, an employee benefit survey, maybe once or twice a year, and you're looking at that for the last two years when evaluating what does the brand need? Do they want mental health? Do they want financial health? So when we brought Headspace on, it was because of the feedback. So I think from hearing from actual people of what they're doing with it and how it's helped them, I'm getting phone calls or emails of like, Hey, can you help sign me up? Or Hey, I had my first therapy appointment today and it was wonderful. Thank you so much. So I think it's really those personal connections that you're making. And I also say as an employee of barta who runs our benefits, I use all of them because how can I share? Why would I tell someone to use it if I've never used it? I really can't. I just feel like I want to be in their shoes and I want to relate. So I tell them that, yeah, we have Headspace and up to five people in your life can also use it for free as well. So I feel like for me to really relate to them and vice versa, I feel like making those connections are extremely helpful.
Heather Newton (28:48):
I agree with that a hundred percent. I'll use myself all the time when I talk to employees. I use the CALM app when I'm trying to get my kids to go to bed, put on a sleep story, same. It's great. It's free. Try it out. I'm not one to meditate either. But you know what, it's helpful. There's one minute breathing. It really is helpful if you're going into a stressful meeting or a stressful therapy session. And I think a hundred percent leadership really has to model by using the benefits and sharing how we're using them. Correct.
Alyssa Place (29:19):
And how are you seeing those benefits as a reflection of the culture? I mean, Heather, you mentioned that the culture is really a draw for the people that come there. So how are you making sure that every benefit or most of the benefits that you offer are aligned with those values? Do you have a list that you're cross-checking or what does that look like for you?
Heather Newton (29:40):
No, I think it's less formal, but in the culture you really have to show that you care about employees. And I think that's a big part of wellness. And I think the other big part, and I've heard this sometimes with employees is taking time off. They're not sure if that's acceptable. Is it okay to actually use my vacation time? So as leaders, even our CEO, she'll talk about her trip to Italy that she just went on to show employees, take your time off. It's there for you. It's acceptable, it's you're not going to be shunned for taking it.
Alyssa Place (30:17):
Is that similar for you? How are you making sure that Bar Taco's values are really showing through in the benefits that you're providing?
Scott Rodney (30:24):
I would say it's really when we're looking at new benefits, it's doing our due diligence and making sure we're partners, we're partnering with other brands or companies that align with us. I think that's first and foremost, it's really evaluating them as they're evaluating us to come on. And I think that's really the first step. It's like, do we have similarities in our brands and our cultures? Because I want to make sure that the brands that we're bringing on are true to who we are. And I think it's always just making sure that when I can speak about a benefit that I've used my own experience, that people feel that it's relatable to them and I feel like that's really important.
Alyssa Place (31:01):
And what happens if there's a misalignment? Maybe you brought on a benefit, you mentioned pet insurance and that didn't really work, but maybe there are one or two employees that had a pet and were using it. So what happens at that point when a benefit just isn't working anymore?
Scott Rodney (31:15):
Yeah, once we brought on mental health, we brought on financial wellness, we did financial wellness coaching, and that was just a benefit that it was not successful. I feel like we have a very diverse population at our brand, and I feel like whether it's mental health or financial health, there's still stigmas around being vulnerable with a benefit that is brought on by an employer. I think that's just the truth. And I feel like sometimes it's hard for people to be vulnerable with someone they've never met before or to really understand what's going on. And also people don't want to talk about moRodney sometimes. It's very really personal. So I think we noticed that and we slowly just rolled it back. And I'm sure eventually that will come back, but at that time, we realized it just was not reaching with the team.
Alyssa Place (32:03):
And did you get pushback from employees?
Scott Rodney (32:05):
We didn't get pushback. There was just no enrollment. It was very low. Yeah, we would do these lunch and learns and people would attend, but there was no enrollment. There was no participation after fact. I think the lunch and learns were good, but then it's actually taking that step and planning a coaching session and it didn't really resonate with people.
Heather Newton (32:26):
I think sometimes you just have to kind of go back and reevaluate. Sometimes surveying the employees or surveying them after you implement something and get their feedback. Sometimes they'll say, it was great and other times this was terrible. Why did you offer this? So that honest feedback really helps you to, okay, let's reevaluate. Let's resurvey, let's see what they actually want. Because what we thought they wanted, maybe they didn't.
Alyssa Place (32:50):
And you mentioned, Scott, that you're already done with open enrollment and you both are already working very ahead of the curve. But I wanted to think about the future a little bit and make some predictions around what are the areas around wellness and around health and wellbeing that you really see as really going to be guiding posts in the future. What does that look like for you, Scott? If our taco, I
Scott Rodney (33:11):
Think it's continuing to have a menu of benefits. I think we started with that and I think we're on that path. And I think it's always creating this menu of multi-generational types of benefits for all. We have so many college students that work for us because we're in a lot of college towns, so it's like they're not going to need benefits. That's not the population that I'm reaching out to when I'm talking about benefits on their parents or they're on their university's benefits or insurance. So I think it's really understanding our demographic and our people at that time and continuing to evolve, whether it's more mental health or it's more physical and wellness. We partnered with Active and Fit. They're a really great organization that does a lot of discounted on gym memberships. So I think we just started that this year and I can see us doing more of those types of things
Heather Newton (34:02):
Yeah, they're good.
Scott Rodney (34:03):
Yeah, they're really good. We use them
Heather Newton (34:04):
As well. Yeah, I think especially with just the different generations, you have to have a menu. You have to continue that. And I think also, especially with more and more Gen Z coming into the workforce, they really want things that are on demand. They want to be able to go and get therapy quickly. So the apps like Headspace or those support are really important. So probably more of that will be integrated in the future and potentially some kind of AI to help with benefit selection and customization so employees can understand what their needs are.
Alyssa Place (34:45):
I mean, it sounds pretty exhausting to be a benefit leader because it just seems like you always have to be three steps ahead. What keeps you motivated to stay in this field? What's still exciting to you despite all the ups and downs and budget challenges and all of that stuff?
Scott Rodney (35:01):
I think just it's still those personal connections that I meet with the team members. Benefits is a part of a profession that I never really knew about until you're in it, where when you make that connection, you don't know what impact you're making on someone's life. You don't know what that medical insurance is doing for them. So when you go to one of their bar taco locations and they come up to you and they're like, I'm so thankful that we have medical insurance because of my son or my daughter or for myself because of X, Y, and z right there. That's the reason of bringing these things. And even that Duolingo experience for that team member that maybe he's going to go on and become a bartender and not work in the back of the kitchen and come out front and interact with our guests. So for me, that's what really drives me. And I think also with my chief people officer really pushing and challenging what new things can we bring to our population?
Heather Newton (35:58):
I love that we're mission driven and just seeing the employees love what they do and just putting all the dedication from supervisors just down to facility staff and just being able to support them with benefits, with the culture, making sure they have what they need to be successful. That's really what I love doing. Benefits is a big part of that. And then culture for me is the other part.
Alyssa Place (36:25):
Great. Well, listen, thank you both so much for your insights. This is such a great conversation. Obviously a lot on both of your plates. I appreciate your time here. But thank you so much for joining us today.
Scott Rodney (36:35):
Thank you. Thank you.
LEADERS is a flagship channel that spotlights C-level executives and top experts as they discuss transformative topics for an audience of key decision-makers. We deliver thought leadership on the most pressing issues driving financial services. The LEADERS series is made possible by the support from top industry collaborators including Inspira.
