Totally Rewarding Chats

Healthcare costs keep rising, and employers have to decide who pays for it and what gets cut. This conversation looks at what is driving benefits costs right now, including specialty medications and GLP-1s. It covers how cost sharing affects the value of merit increases and why employees have troubl...

Sean and Paul bring in Jessica Pontious, a compensation leader who spent a decade inside one company. Jess explains what actually changed when she started advising organizations across industries, sizes, and countries. The conversation covers why she left a large in-house rewards role, the fears tha...

Sean and Paul get together with Christina Watts, Consultant with Marsh, to debate whether the traditional annual pay increase cycle still earns its place, and what companies can do instead. You will hear the case that the yearly increase process is trying to solve too many problems at once, a counte...

Travicka Keaton, Senior Manager of Compensation with Monogram Foods, walks through what it actually takes to build a job architecture inside a company that grew fast without one. You will learn how long a real project takes, why salaried roles are usually sequenced before hourly and site-based roles...

This episode explains why the HR technology market feels chaotic right now and what that means for the people who buy and build it. George LaRocque of WorkTech describes the market as an hourglass: established platforms at the top with time and options, AI-native newcomers at the bottom with speed a...

This season-opening conversation covers what is shifting in compensation and total rewards heading into 2027, and what practitioners should watch. Sean shares some exciting news and explains why a career move from building compensation software into association and community work made sense after th...

This episode explains why most compensation and HR teams are not getting real results from AI, and what to fix first. You will learn how to tell where your organization actually sits on the AI adoption curve, why inconsistent data fields like location and cost center quietly break AI analysis, how t...

In this episode, Shayna Cooke from Dominion Payroll shares her journey from education to HR leadership, her approach to building effective programs, and how AI is transforming HR and payroll operations. Discover practical insights on change management, employee engagement, and leveraging technology ...

Paul and Sean sit down with Holly Benner to explore what sustainable high performance looks like and how aligning your values with your work can lead to greater impact. Holly shares insights from her experience at Merck Pharmaceuticals and MettaPerformance, including the importance of understanding ...

Paul and Sean sit down with Dane Hickey to explore the evolving world of compensation and what it takes to build a successful career in the field. Dane shares lessons from his career journey, the value of resourcefulness and continuous learning, and why challenging traditional compensation practices...