Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Why Financial Stress Is a Safety Problem
Transcript
- Beyond the Paycheck - Sarah Cornelio === [00:00:00] Welcome, Sarah Cornelio, total rewards manager at Urban Engineers. We're so excited to have you. To kick us off, I'd love for you to share a little bit about your current role, your background, and where you're calling in from today. Yeah, absolutely. I'm calling in from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I work in total rewards at Urban Engineers, which is an engineering, architecture, and construction firm. I have 20 years about it's about 20 years in human resources. I've worked in a variety of different roles across HR, from payroll and HRIS and data to total rewards training and a lot of very heavy employee relations work across a variety of different industries. A lot of heavy manufacturing, engineering, and things like that. Amazing, and I'm excited to learn more specifically around that background. Before we get there, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your first job. So what was your first job, and do you recall what you spent your first paycheck on? Yeah. My first job was when I was 13, [00:01:00] working at a local dollar store just kind of doing whatever it was that they needed me to do. I blew up a lot of balloons. And I spent my first paycheck on a teal fake snakeskin bag, Guess bag from Ross, and it was very, very exciting purchase. I also love the details that you remember- of that first purchase. Sometimes people have a really hard time answering that question, so I, I know how, , I imagine that purchase was very important to you to, to remember all that. I held onto it for a long time. How do you think your money story has influenced how you think about showing up for your people in terms of pay, benefits, and just supporting them in general? I think that my money story has had a significant impact, not only on how I show up for employees and think about them, but why I chose my career. I grew up in a house with a parent that had a long-term illness, and it, you know, I wanted to work in the corporate world, and benefits is really where I was [00:02:00] able to do that and show up and help employees. So I think it's really impacted how I show up for them and making sure that I think about every aspect of what's going on in their work life, or in their home life, and how it impacts showing up at work, whether they're dealing with a sick parent or, you know, moving or going through any other kind of life transition, getting married, divorced, having a baby. It all impacts how you show up at work, and I just think how I grew up really impacted how I show employees. Well, thank you so much for sharing that story. I think it's... It also brings up a really good point around how companies today are supporting people in many different aspects of their lives, whether it is going on maternity leave, uh, going on your honeymoon, et cetera. And a lot of these things that companies are supporting the person on has to do with their whole person, you know, whether it's supporting mental health, physical health, financial health, and more. What are the things you're specifically doing today [00:03:00] to support the whole employee, and where do you believe companies are falling short? Specifically, we are always taking a look at our benefits to make sure that they're relevant and current. Right now, GLP-1s comes up as a question from employees all the time. Mm-hmm. Fertility benefits comes up as a question all the time. So making sure that we're positioned to help employees the best that we can. But also making sure that we're always saying yes to the vendors that come to us with different offerings, and evaluating whether or not it makes sense for our employees, and really never letting the first answer be no. One of the, , more recent calls that we said yes to was a provider offering us a long-term care insurance policy for our employees and deeply meaningful to a lot of employees especially as the younger group of employees are kind of planning for all of the things that are yet to come, and some of that older group is thinking about, you know, what's next and who's gonna take care of me and things like that. And , [00:04:00] my manager was really willing and happy to sit and listen to the sales pitch. And we're working on some of the finer details, but I think making sure that we're looking at everything that's our way, 'cause we can't possibly be thinking of everything. So I think that's been real important to our benefits strategy. I'm still relatively new with the organization, so it's evolving. But that one is the really important pieces I think that we are looking at right now, just taking a look at everything that's out there. You know, AI has really enabled a lot of different companies to pop up and say, "We've got these different mental health resource for your employees," or, "We've got these different productivity resources for your employees." So just understanding what's out there. It's such an important topic to bring up given, you know, we're in such an interesting time, companies investing heavily in AI a- and not always thinking about, how do we continue supporting benefits offering even during, you know, cost pressure. So it's really cool to see the organization continuing to think about broader innovations that are gonna [00:05:00] benefit people, and being open to it coming your way, not always just being, you know, us seeking out new and interesting tools. Absolutely. One of the really cool tools that we were just pitched speaking of AI, is just helping us leverage an AI tool to review our claims and ensure that claims are being reviewed and billed and handled appropriately in a way you can do it faster and more efficiently than manually. So that's been really interesting to learn about as well. How are you keeping pulse with these new technologies? Are there any specific, uh, conferences that you've been attending, specific groups where you learn about these, or is it most of the companies coming directly to you? Most of it is the companies coming directly to us, but then we have really strong benefit broker program. We have a really strong retirement program, and these carriers are coming to us and saying you know, "Here's what we're seeing and how it impacts our business." So we're also really trying to lean in heavily to [00:06:00] using the resources that the company has, saying, "What are you all seeing that's working across our company?" We're all starting to participate in some surveys to make sure that we are keeping up on what's going on across different employee-owned companies, we are ESOP or different engineering and architecture and construction firms. Not only just taking the calls as they come, but seeking out the data as well has become a really important part of our strategy. How do you think about building the connection between supporting the employees and the quality of their output? Is it something you measure? And more broadly, how do you measure if a program is really working? I think a lot of the measure comes from a lot of the really great programs out there for measuring engagement. There's so many different survey resources today, and there's a really affordable option for companies, and then there's the more expensive options for companies. And I think, [00:07:00] you know, as they've become more common at looking at that data has become really important. But one aspect that I think people tend to forget about is those non-scale victories, right? Like when you're losing weight and the scale's not moving, but your clothes are different and you're smiling a little bit more and things like that. I really like to think that in terms of employees, right? What are we doing where we may not necessarily be able to measure the outcome right away or at all, but how are we measuring that impact? And I think it's connecting with our employees you know, whether it's virtually or in person, just checking in with them. "Hey, how are you doing?" Every time I have an interaction with employees, I ask, "What can we be doing better to support you?" So I think just using all of those moments to create, you know, opportunities to compile some qualitative data is really important. Yeah, I imagine that telling that narrative when the spreadsheet doesn't so [00:08:00] obviously support, ROI, having qualitative data can be incredibly meaningful in showing, no, this actually is something that employees deeply appreciate, even if we're not showing, you know, X amount of pounds off the scale, something like that, that's so numeric- Yeah partially numeric. Yeah. I had one manager once, a couple months ago, who was a huge believer in focus groups and just saying, like, "Let's put our HR people, you know, across the US and, you know, at different sites and- Hmm ... try to really understand what our employees are dealing with on a day-to-day basis straight from their mouth." It was one of the most valuable lessons I think I ever learned as an HR person, to just really appreciate listening to what people are going through on a day-to-day basis. Because then it gives an opportunity to really say, "These are our people, and these are their real struggles." It's one of my favorite tools in my toolbox is to do focus groups. It's such a great reminder because I think that sometimes, we can get so caught [00:09:00] up in data itself, and, what we forget is the people that are sharing are the ones that are always gonna be sharing. And so you might be missing really meaningful information on the folks that, you know, didn't spend the time to answer that survey. And so focus groups can be an incredibly valuable way to get people talking that n- might not have always been the one to fill out the form. Yeah. How do you think about compensation shifts and benefits trends that are coming? And what do you believe most HR leaders aren't ready for? I think most HR leaders aren't really ready and prepared to deal with sandwich generation. I think that you have that group of employee that is figuring out how to keep taking care of not only themselves, but their kids and now their parents as well. And I think that there's a lot of really great talk that I hear happens across different organizations, right? It's not my organization. I hear lots of different talk from conferences or from you know, some of the [00:10:00] HR consulting work or just different networking opportunities that I think a lot of employers are starting to think about it, not really creating any actionable solutions for this group of employees. And it's a huge population of employees, right? You have your people that are just coming into the workforce that they're having to take care of their parents. You have your people that have been in the workforce for a little bit longer, and they're having to figure out multiple pieces now. So I think that's a piece of trending topics that everyone's not quite prepared to deal with. And I haven't seen a lot of really great solutions on it also either. And then one of I think the other ones that I think is really important is making sure that you're creating those benefit resources that are tailored to the life experience that the person's going through. You know, not saying when you're having a baby, "Here's your list of short-term disability and FMLA resources. Here's all the things you need to think about from a tax active. Here's your legal resources through our legal plan. Here's your financial resources, [00:11:00] our retirement program." There's a lot of counseling and coding, and we should use those benefits that are available to us. So really about creating those benefits where people are at in their life right now. You bring up an interesting subject financial health. How important is financial health for employees on behalf of the organization? I think it's... Do you mean like the employee's financial health or- Yes ... the company's financial health? Yeah, so how important is the financial health of employees to the company? I think it's incredibly important. I'm seeing more and more where employees are having to work multiple jobs just- Mm ... to be able to make ends meet. And I am a huge supporter of that, right? Like, I think that if you need employees that need to work second jobs, you should allow them to do that and not create any barriers, unless you're willing to pay them the money that they need to survive, whether that's a living wage- Right [00:12:00] or an offset student loan debt cost and things like that. So I think it's really important because it's an indicator of burnout. If you have people that are working multiple jobs for a long period of time, and then factor in a lot of these people are the sandwich generation, you really have a lot of risk of burnout in the workplace and where your mistakes happen. That's where people snap at each other at work, and they don't receive feedback very well. They don't deliver feedback very well. So it touches so many different areas of the business. Not to mention the fact that when you're working in a safety sensitive position, the impact that it can have, you know, when you're at work doing your job you know, from the safety perspective. Yeah. Safety's such a good point. You know, there's so much research that shows people spend a lot of time thinking about financial stress. I, I can certainly imagine that shows up in, pressures, in performance and, and, and, you know, perhaps hindering safety. So I can completely understand why it's so incredibly important to the company to focus on. Yeah. When you think [00:13:00] about a program that sits idle versus one that really moves the needle, what do you think makes up the big difference in that? Is it engagement? You've mentioned a little bit about that. Or do you think it's something else? I think engagement's a huge piece of it, but then I think accountability is a piece that is incredibly important. Who owns the process? Who's responsible for many outcomes, making sure it doesn't sit stagnant? And I do think that that's a part of the business world that I think has been lost over the last couple years, where accountability isn't quite as easy to come by in the workplace, where people are afraid to raise their hand and say, you know, "Hey, I've made a mistake," or you know, "I dropped the ball on this, and I haven't pushed this initiative forward." So I think if we can create you know, across the workforce, opportunities for accountability and repair, it's a really, really important part of making sure that these things don't stay stagnant. You know, and it sounds like that's a huge just part of culture carrying and making sure people feel [00:14:00] confident and comfortable and know the right- people up the chain to have those conversations with and feel comfortable saying, you know, when I have dropped the ball or not. Yeah. Absolutely. My last question for you as we, we, we wrap up on this conversation is where can our listeners connect with you beyond it? I am on LinkedIn, and I can be connected with on there. That's all I got. Fabulous. I'm not a social media person. Well, definitely connect with Sarah on LinkedIn if you have any follow-up questions for her, especially around running experiments, all the new vendors that have been coming her way. I'm sure there's lots more to share and, and, uh, exchange information on. Thank you so much for being a part of this conversation, especially prior to a holiday weekend. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and, uh, look forward to sharing it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. ~Okay. So we are done with our podcast recording.~ I tried to keep it about 15 minutes, so, that's actually how long we typically make our podcasts anyway, so they have really high listenership. In terms of next steps, our team's gonna edit this [00:15:00] conversation and then share back a draft with you. So if you have any feedback, please send us a note. Tanner will work on, uh, making sure it is cut in the way that you feel comfortable. Uh, we'll also be sharing a LinkedIn post with you so you can share this conversation with your network. We just wanna make it really easy. Are there any other questions you might have for me? No, I think that's it. Did it feel good? Yeah, it feels good. I was really nervous. You make it nervy. Oh, I'm glad. No, it- Yeah ... the conversation tends to flow pretty well especially as people kind of settle into it. And thank you for dealing with the technical difficulties at the beginning. I think it led to a really good conversation, and hopefully it, it eased some of your concern. But you were a natural. You didn't read off a script, which I always, I always worry about. That's my only ever fear. I think it, you sounded really conversational, and it'll be a, a great conversation to share with the community. Awesome. I'm, I'm really nervous about, like, not hearing questions well. I know when people ask a question and then people go off on tang, [00:16:00] and you're like, "You didn't even talk about what I just asked you." That's, I think, the only thing that I'm really nervous about, is that I feel like- You answered my questions very directly. And I appreciated you clarifying if a question ever didn't make sense. I have uh, and this is off the record, but I've certainly done interviews where a person does not answer my question and I'm like, "Okay, how do I take this next?" But you were very direct, and I, I appreciate you reading through on that. Awesome. All right. The only other thing, Sarah, is so our podcast is sponsored by Aura Finance. It's a psychology-based financial engagement company that does money coaching and helping people deal with their relationship and their money behavior patterns. I am also, uh, the owner of that business, and I was curious if you'd ever be open to learning more about it, especially given it sounds like the company is really interested- Yeah ... in always assessing new tools and resources that could potentially add value. Yeah, that's actually a huge part of my goal. Just little sidebar is we are [00:17:00] a 50-year-old company but a new leadership, like totally new C-suite new HR team. So, like, we're also very much startup kind of mode and mentality. Cool. So looking at those resources, especially from a financial literacy perspective, is a huge goal of mine. I've just joined the National Center for Employee Ownership for the first time, and- Amazing it's a huge, huge topic. But I'm really, really excited for the stock company. It's an area that I am new in, so financial literacy is huge topic, uh, for us right now and how to employ. Amazing. So let's get something on the calendar. Yay. Well, I'm so excited to hear that because, you know, I always like focusing on companies that see this as a priority. And if they don't, it can lead to, you know, more challenging conversations with the companies that are interested in investing in innovation, thinking about new ways to support folks in this kind of new environment that we're also in. Yeah. So really excited to share it with you. When would work best for [00:18:00] you? I think that it would take about 30 minutes. Let's probably next week. That'd be great Next Next Thursday I'm available any time before noon. I usually start my day around 8:30, 9:00. Okay, how about- And then I'm available all day Friday the 10th, so yeah. We could do Thursday the 9th at 9:30 my time. Sure. So that would be 11:30 your time, I believe. Perfect. Okay. I'm just gonna title it Aura Finance Demo, and we'll take it from there. Okay, great. Well, thank you so much, Sarah. And thank you, Tanner, for recording and editing this conversation. We appreciate you, and I really look forward- Yeah ... to, to meeting you again next week, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend. Thank you. You too. Thanks, guys. Bye. Great work, Sarah. Thanks. Thanks. Bye. Bye.