Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Kristen Ynclan, VP Total Rewards at Vail Resorts

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Kristen Ynclan, VP Total Rewards at Vail Resorts · Beyond the Paycheck

• Kelsey Willock (00:42) Welcome Kristen Ynclan, VP of Total Rewards at Vail Resorts We are so beyond excited to have you. To kick us off, I would love for you to introduce yourself to our audience and particularly share a little bit about your career and background, where you're calling in from and your current role today. Kristen Ynclan (01:00) Hi everybody, I am Kristen Ynclan and as Kelsey mentioned, I am the VP of Total Rewards at Vail Resorts. I've been in Total Rewards for about 15 years, previously worked at Fluke, Carrier, BMC Software, so a lot of cool names in a lot of different industries. I am currently located in Snohomish, Washington with my husband's son and ⁓ French Bulldog, so it's a lovely place to be. Kelsey Willock (01:25) Wonderful. And I'm sure your busy season is about to get started as we are entering the winter time. I'm going to ask you lots of questions, particularly about Vail. However, I want to start by getting to know you a little bit better and learning a little bit more about your particularly earliest money memory. Kristen Ynclan (01:33) Absolutely. My earliest money memory is actually ⁓ getting money for teeth from the Tooth Fairy. My Tooth Fairy always dropped off silver dollars ⁓ and my parents liked to make a big deal about that. They were very clear, you can't get those anywhere. They must be magic because they are coming from the Tooth Fairy and not the bank or the grocery store or anywhere else that you could get regular dollars. So it was always fun when I lost a tooth. Kelsey Willock (02:15) And did that experience shape how you see freedom, security, or even responsibility? Kristen Ynclan (02:21) Absolutely. The biggest thing that it taught me, think growing up is, and I didn't have the words for it as a kid, but as an adult looking back, one of the things it taught me is that there is a message in gifts that we give, in money that we give as a company. ⁓ The magic of the tooth fairy wasn't just in getting money for a tooth. It was that this was the very special, unique silver dollar that you couldn't get anywhere else. Kelsey Willock (02:49) Well, thank you so much for sharing that with me. And I love how far that money memory goes back because we often don't talk about how our money stories are really created by the time we turn seven. But often when I ask these questions, I hear answers in the teenage years. So it's awesome to hear that we're going so far back even to when we were getting silver dollars underneath our pillows. Can you tell me about your first job and what you did with your first paycheck? Kristen Ynclan (03:12) Absolutely. So my first job, I was a ⁓ grocery store clerk at Jeans Fine Foods in Saratoga, California. It's a lovely store. We were a union shop, union of food and commercial workers. And I was unionized at 16. So I had dental, which was very fun. The thing about my first paycheck, though, was such an interesting experience for me because I don't remember what I spent it on. And ⁓ the reason I don't remember what I spent it on is that it was the first time in my life that it really hit me how finite money was as a resource. I, you know, I wasn't spoiled by any means, but ⁓ my parents were pretty comfortable and I didn't ask for a lot. And so, you you have your allowance and you don't really think about it. You just go kind of grab something when you're, when you find a CD or some clothing that you like. I got my paycheck and nothing was good enough to spend it on. mean, I think I spent about a month or two. not buying anything at all because I was so excited that I had earned that money that I'd gone and worked and brought it in and that it was mine. ⁓ And so by the time I spent it, I don't remember what I ended up spending it on. I just remember there were so many things that I passed on because nothing seemed good enough to spend the first check on. Kelsey Willock (04:32) So interesting, our first paychecks, there's so much weight to them. And I actually had a very similar story to you, is getting your first paycheck, you realize how valuable even something like $5 is. And it's easy to want to say, no, I need to put that away because I worked an hour perhaps for that time, going back to when we were getting it. So I love that story. Kristen Ynclan (04:45) Exactly. Kelsey Willock (04:58) Can you tell me about a recent embarrassing purchase? Kristen Ynclan (05:02) I wouldn't call the purchase itself embarrassing, but my family's very into Legos. I think you can see in the background I have a lot of sort of fun flowers and birds and stuff. Those are all made out of Lego. And just recently we ⁓ got the Lego app and realized that our collection is over 200,000 pieces. Kelsey Willock (05:21) Goodness. Kristen Ynclan (05:22) Yeah, no individual set is embarrassing, but ⁓ we have way more than I realized when we added it all up. Kelsey Willock (05:30) Well, know, what we place value on is so subjective and I'd imagine that all of that experience and the time building, even together as a family or individually has brought a lot of joy to your family. So I also agree with you. I don't see that as embarrassing. It sounds like money well spent on time well spent. Kristen Ynclan (05:49) Absolutely. It's a great family activity. Kelsey Willock (05:52) I also just love doing tactical things, especially in a world where we've become so digital, doing things in person and with our hands, I find to be so rewarding. Can you tell me a little bit about how you think your money story has influenced how you think about pay and benefits for employees? Kristen Ynclan (06:14) think that the biggest thing for me, it goes all the way back. And like I said, I didn't have words for it when I was a young child, but I look back and a lot of what I put into Leading Total Rewards now is the belief that we have to tell the story to employees about the investment that we're making. The best, most perfectly crafted plan you could write white papers on and get published for is not going to mean anything if employees don't understand why the company is doing it. plans that are messy and have room for improvement and have all these different features that can be challenging and complicated for employees, if you can explain them well and you can demonstrate the value and you can say, is why this is special, this is why this is a silver dollar, not a regular dollar, it goes a really long way to getting people to understand and value what the company does for them with total rewards. Kelsey Willock (07:05) And that actually leads me to a great segue to our next part of the conversation is kind of why we think about compensation and benefits today and how we see them breaking down most often. You're pretty much, we're putting the carpet before the horse, but where we often in conversation see a lot of breaking down is understanding the value of total rewards. I'm curious if there's anything else that you want to add to that, whether it has to do with pay equity, transparency, you had already mentioned understanding total rewards. Where does it break down most often? Kristen Ynclan (07:35) The understanding is definitely the tough part and it's been such a great experience to work at Vail because we have had to really put a lot of time and energy and effort into making sure that we explain things well. And that's led to some fairly high transparency decisions. We have a workforce every year that joins us that is about 30,000 strong and then rolls off at the end of the season. And then in the summertime, another set of 10,000 people joins us for the summer and then rolls off. So we have a constant inflow and outflow of seasonal employees that are absolutely integral to our business and that have incredibly high levels of skill and incredibly unique skills that they bring to the table. that is unique to this business. There's not a lot of other places that have folks that will only join for three or four or five months out of the year, but who absolutely make the business run. so getting that story right, ⁓ telling the... honest, transparent truth about why we do what we do, how we do it, how we've chosen to invest in them is absolutely vital. And it's clear to us because of the nature of that workforce that we can't just publish something once and expect it to be evergreen. We have to constantly tell and retell and retell the story for people. Kelsey Willock (08:50) I I once read in a marketing research paper that you have to market to someone seven times for them to really consume the information that you're trying to convey. So I'm curious, are there any examples in which you've successfully been able to explain the benefits of total rewards, particularly as of late? Kristen Ynclan (09:12) I think the biggest place that we've been really successful, and not just from a total reward standpoint, but from exemplifying the mission of the company, is in our wellness programs. have ⁓ top-of-the-line wellness programs. We've really worked hard to invest in them for employees, and they're very well understood by employees. One of the things that we've done that's incredibly unique is we have, ⁓ on my team, there are two licensed clinical psychologists. who engage the organization in a community psychology model. So they don't just go and counsel people or run our EAP. They've actually built networks. have wellness coordinators in most of our resorts who are on site. ⁓ And they take on that hat voluntarily on top of their day job. And they work to bring community engagement, have preventative conversations. One of the things that we talk about a lot is connection is prevention. So the idea that as you form strong community connections within these resort towns, we're gonna help avoid mental health crisis situations and be able to intervene with people before they have a mental health crisis. And that's one place in particular where both the reality of the investment the company's made and the storytelling around it has been absolutely vital and is very well understood by employees. Kelsey Willock (10:30) And have you seen measurable impact from that beyond the obvious? And are you focused on measurable impacts such as higher levels of engagement of your workforce, more sound retention, equity? Kristen Ynclan (10:44) Absolutely. we look at the mission of the company, the mission of the company is creating the experience of a lifetime for our employees so they can in turn create the experience of a lifetime for our guests. I think the nuance there is really important. We could just say experience of a lifetime for our guests and of course that is our ultimate goal as a company is to make sure our guests have unforgettable experiences at our resorts. But we do that by creating those conditions through our frontline employees. We make sure that they are having the kind of experience working for us and being on the mountain that you can't get anywhere else and that they're supported through the difficult times and celebrated in the good times. And by doing that, we've seen our employee engagement scores and our guest engagement scores go up. And we know that a strong foundation of mental health along with other investments is a big reason why that is. Kelsey Willock (11:37) I think that's a phenomenal example and I also particularly love how it's an example of employing something that's in person. It's not just a digital activation, it's this boots on the ground idea that people are really there and have your back. So I think it's a fabulous example of how we can go from really attracting talent to transforming an individual's life. Kristen Ynclan (11:58) Absolutely, and that is really the key. Our CEO, ⁓ Rob Katz, many years ago recognized, and well before my time, I'm just lucky to get to work at a company that has this kind of value set, but recognized that in mountain communities in particular, there is a combination of ⁓ really extreme temperatures, extreme weather, extreme needs for people's lives, ⁓ and in some cases, ⁓ challenge getting mental health care in those communities. People sometimes having to travel all way to Denver to be able to talk to someone. And that combination makes it extremely difficult. know, we, by the nature of our business, we have to ask people to get up at three o'clock in the morning and drive a giant snowcat up a mountain to groom our trails for us. And that's hard. That's a genuinely difficult thing to do. We're asking them to give a lot. And he recognized very early on that that can put strain on people's mental health. And by helping provide the scaffolding for that. We feel like we're really making sure we're taking care of our employees. Kelsey Willock (13:01) to mind is also safety. know, when people feel better they can show up physically and do these really, you know, tough jobs better. So think it's a great example that our listeners can take away really tangibly. So I want to talk about next looking ahead. What compensation and benefits trends do you think will shape the employee experience in the next year for the company? Kristen Ynclan (13:25) think the biggest thing that we're seeing is the need for agility. One of the things that we've seen ⁓ both in our industry, as I mentioned, we onboard and offboard tens of thousands of employees every year because of the nature of our business. But we're also seeing a more prevalence of workforce management, both in our company and in others. And as we start to ask people to wear more hats, do more things, and think about the contributions that they're making on an individual shift basis rather than saying this is the chair you sit in, this is the job that you do, you're gonna do the same thing every day, we need to have compensation and benefits that are responsive to that. And we need to have the flexibility built into our compensation programs to acknowledge the many different things that we're asking people to do. So we have strong workforce management, we've got a strong sense of agility, and we've got a real belief that if we allow people to demonstrate the skills that they have, they're going to feel more engaged, they're gonna feel a stronger connection to the company. than if we ask them to sort of do the same thing day after day. And that I think is where we're seeing a need to make sure that both our compensation and benefits are responsive to the changing nature of work from how it used to be. Kelsey Willock (14:38) have there been tools and resources that have helped the company adapt to this need for agility? And have they been, if there are tools, have they been built in-house or are you finding assistance from outsourced tools? Kristen Ynclan (14:52) We have some tools that are outsourced. We have some tools that were homegrown in-house. And I think we see the opportunity. I feel very lucky where we are right now, which is that we recognized the way of working that we wanted to lean into before securing a specific tool set. And I think one of the things that I've seen in other organizations and in past lives myself is if you get the tools before you make the decision, you sort lock yourself into how that tool is structured. Now that's changing with AI. One of the things that's great about AI is the learning and adaptability that's built into AI models. And so as they are able to adapt, we're able to be more creative and be more open and flexible in terms of what we're doing. But we're at a great inflection point right now where we know the direction the company is going. We know the direction the workforce is going, and we're able to expand and adapt our tools around that instead of the other way around. Kelsey Willock (15:48) So I want to double click on that. How is AI shaping your role? And is it becoming more used to the company? And I'm particularly curious about your workforce, so many folks are doing more physical roles, as you describe more frontline workers. Is AI coming through in how we show up for them? And has that impacted how they show up for their day-to-day jobs? Kristen Ynclan (16:16) think the biggest thing AI is doing right now, and we know we have so many more opportunities, we're very excited about AI. I am as well personally, ⁓ as well as professionally. There's so much promise to it. The biggest thing that it's doing is that it's taking things that were inefficient because a person had to go and do them, and it's making them efficient. And I think what we're seeing is that that's really allowing Our corporate team and our leadership teams to show up better for our frontline employees. It's freeing up the space that we need to do a better job of connecting with our employees and resorts and understanding the needs and challenges that they have. Whereas, you know, prior to AI, there were things that, you know, we need to do them. We need to document them. We need to make sure that we have, you know, a strong repeatable process, but the more of that you do, the more time it takes. so AI is really doing a great job of taking work that. The output adds value, but the time is significant and lowering the time commitment that that takes, which allows us to really focus our time where it matters the most. Kelsey Willock (17:18) Thanks for sharing that with us. And now I want to talk a little bit about pay equity. What mindset shifts or guardrails does leadership need to keep pay fair and empowering in a time like now? Kristen Ynclan (17:35) I think pay equity in particular is a real challenge at a lot of places. And a big part of the reason why is that when you're balancing equitability and fairness with pay for performance, it's so easy to fall into a pattern of unconscious bias. And what I think we do really well and I'm really proud of is we have such a strong and robust leadership talent review and assessment of our talent that it's not that you can ever be fully without bias, but I think we work really hard to make sure that the way that we're discussing the talent and assessing it allows us to make these pay decisions and to make talent decisions fairly across the board. There's really strong conversations that happen within teams, across teams, at all levels. It's just a part of the leadership culture is really making sure that we are a talent first company. And I think that's a big part of the solution to challenges with pay equity is when you know that your talent assessment isn't gonna sit in a vacuum, when you know that you're gonna defend it to your peers and they're gonna defend their talent assessments to you, there's a lot more thoughtfulness that goes into it and a lot of ⁓ real strong consideration about the contributions each person is making that you can stand behind when it comes time to make pay decisions. Kelsey Willock (18:58) And what is one 30 day experiment listeners could try to boost equity, financial well-being, or even engagement at their companies? Kristen Ynclan (19:09) think the first thing I would recommend for a 30-day experiment is diving into the data. And this is maybe a recommendation for the folks that aren't Total Rewards folks, because I'm sure every Total Rewards person just chuckled a little bit. ⁓ the first thing I do any time there's a big change, a big shift, a reorg, any time in my career that I've gotten a new role is pull up the data, the headcount data, and just roll around in it. look at it, read through it, assess it, and then bring the questions that come out of that assessment to the leaders over those functions and try to understand the history behind it. And what that does is creates a really strong foundation for understanding that allows us to ask more probing questions. And it doesn't take very long. The initial assessment, you can spend a day or so rolling around in it in the next couple of weeks meeting with leaders. And it just really, I think, provides the visibility that you need. to ⁓ be able to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way and help guide the outcomes of decisions. Kelsey Willock (20:16) be fearful of digging into the data is what I'm really taking away from them. think that so many people have a hard time assessing it because we've got data from so many different angles and places. But we run these really important surveys. We run studies that I think that it's a great reminder that it does not need to be a six-month experiment. It can be done over 30 days if you allow yourself to really sink your teeth into it. So I appreciate you sharing that. Kristen Ynclan (20:43) Absolutely. Kelsey Willock (20:45) Kristen, this has been just a phenomenal conversation. I really appreciate all you've brought to it. I particularly loved how you started off with such great transparency telling us all about your earliest money memory, particularly that silver dollar underneath your pillow, teaching us all a little bit how we can better support the well-being of frontline workforce and being reminded that it's not all digital tools. It is in-person connection that can be extremely powerful. I also loved how you shared a little bit of what's underneath the curtain behind how we can leverage AI tools to better connect not just folks at the top, but those folks at the top with the people below them. how you're thinking about agility within this ever-changing workforce. And lastly, how we can really quote unquote, roll in the data more effectively, understand it, and allow ourselves to really take that data and turn it into something meaningful and tangible. So ⁓ I'd love for you to just lastly share with our listeners where they can connect with you. Kristen Ynclan (21:51) Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. This was a ton of fun. I am on LinkedIn, ⁓ Kristen Ynclan, and at Vail Resorts. Kelsey Willock (22:00) Thank you so much, Kristen.