Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Building Total Rewards From the Ground Up
Transcript
- Beyond the Paycheck - Felipe Uliani === [00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome to Beyond the Paycheck, where we bring you candid conversations with CHROs and people leaders who are rethinking how compensation and benefits impact far more than just employee bank accounts. From the first paycheck to financial wellness programs, we explore how money shapes identity, equity, purpose, and power at work, and how forward-thinking companies are using pay and perks to transform lives. This podcast is presented by Aura Finance, a psychology-based financial wellness employee benefit that combines coaching and financial management. Now, let's get started and jump in with our next guest Kelsey Willock Jones: Welcome, Felipe Uliani, Director of Global Total Rewards at Rimini Street. Thank you so much for joining us, especially after a long holiday weekend. To kick us off, I'd love for you to share a little bit about your role, your career and background, and where you're calling in from today. Felipe Uliani: Hello, Kelsey. Great to be [00:01:00] here. I'm calling from between Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee Kelsey Willock Jones: Can you tell me a little bit about your career and your background of your current role? Felipe Uliani: Yeah I work in compensation for more than 20 years on the total reward space. Currently, I work at Rimini is a global technology company focused on enterprise software and support and services Kelsey Willock Jones: Awesome. And Felipe Uliani: yeah Kelsey Willock Jones: how many folks work at Rimini? Felipe Uliani: Right now is about 2,000 and a couple contractors, about 500 contractors Kelsey Willock Jones: Great. Excited to dive into all the amazing work that you do at the company covering, the thousands of employees that work there. But before we get into that, I wanna learn a little bit more about you personally. So can you tell me a little bit about your first job and if you remember what you spent your first paycheck on? Felipe Uliani: Work was very incentivized by my parents and my culture. I grew up in Brazil, and that experience helped to shape the way I see [00:02:00] the reality. I used to learn guitar lessons in the morning and teach in the afternoon and charge a little bit in the building that I used to live in São Paulo. But my first paycheck, W-2, I was working as as a developer, and I remember getting that paycheck, giving to my parents as a thank you for all they did for me, and we ended up going in, in a dinner and celebrate with me, my father, my mother, and my two brothers Kelsey Willock Jones: You're the first person I've heard to, be so generous with their first paycheck. I think one of the most common things I hear is, "I spent the money on, gas or a new pair of shoes." So I think that's just such a wonderful story and gratitude to show your parents, what they've given you, you're returning the favor. It's such a generous story to tell. I really love it. Felipe Uliani: Thank you. Yeah. As a kid, it was hard, but money [00:03:00] taught me responsibility, sacrifice, family even stability. And that's shaped how I see money and compensation today Kelsey Willock Jones: I'd love to actually talk a little bit more about that. Obviously you touch on it a slight bit, but how do you think this story more broadly has influenced how you think about paying folks compensation, supporting them more broadly, of all the employees that you've led? Felipe Uliani: I think as a company, the company needs to be profitable. The company needs It's for-profit, or if you work in a nonprofit, but there is a focus there. But as a total reward leader, you are a steward of the employees. So you always have to have the two sides in your mind in not only the pay decisions should not be based on emotions or data is bigger than that. It's what's the impact. You have to understand the business, understanding the criticality [00:04:00] of the role. If you're working a company that is public or private, if it is in another country, what's the dynamic? What's the counter dynamic for that position? So there is so much more involved that, that makes the art part of the total reward so fascinating to me. Kelsey Willock Jones: Global total rewards are complicated. I think that now as so many companies are becoming more and more global, we're seeing companies not just foster programs that are, United States-centric or specific country-centric. How do you think about providing broad-based rewards while also recognizing the needs of employees in different countries can vary quite a bit? Felipe Uliani: Yeah, it's a balance. You have to understand what the company does and the value that it's producing, and also how that is impacting the employee. And sometimes their salary is is a rent, is food, is a dream that they are [00:05:00] fighting for or hope. Make sure we do our job in a way that the data is telling us a lot, but also being flexible to understand what's the context, I think is essential. And that can be the country, can be the state, can be the type of position Kelsey Willock Jones: And I imagine staying on top of that can be quite complicated. How many countries is Rimini currently in? Felipe Uliani: More than 20 Kelsey Willock Jones: Wow. That's a whole lot of cultural context. Is there a way that you've found to maintain a pulse on all of these different locations to serve those folks best? Felipe Uliani: We have a great team. Rimini has great people working, and I rely a lot on the local intelligence, which is the tribe VPs. And also we rely on own market data that we can, triangulate the market intelligence, the survey, plus how the position is doing in regards to [00:06:00] candidates so we can determine the best strategy for that country Kelsey Willock Jones: One thing I'm really curious about that you mentioned is obviously companies need to focus on revenue, but your side of the world, it's also about how do you make sure the employee can deliver their best work, which can therefore impact output at the company. Right now, we're seeing a lot of companies invest heavily in supporting what I would say is really the whole person, whether it's supporting them through their mental health, their physical health, their financial health. Can you talk a little bit about what things you're doing and seeing that are really working and supporting folks in terms of supporting that whole employee that we talk about? Felipe Uliani: Yeah. When you see the employees not only as the workforce in doing the work, but also as people with needs, with emotions, with families, you approach in a [00:07:00] different way. I think connection in this world where it's moving towards AI and touchless automation, I think the connection to really get the phone, call the employee, understand what they're going through in some situations, and then be flexible with a solution that works for the company and for the employee. And as a global leader, make sure you are bringing stability and consistency for the organization. We need to fight for the little guys and the big ones having fair policies. Fair policy is not everybody have what they want, but we have a fair system. We are-- We have a clear system that we can ex-explain. We are consistent, is defensible, and exceptions we will always have but being the [00:08:00] steward of the employees where we bring fairness and consistency, I think is the key to do a good work. Kelsey Willock Jones: And when you think about fairness that's not necessarily a a word we would use when thinking about making an internal case for investment, right? Fairness isn't productivity or, necessarily the conduit to increased revenue or improved retention. So the question I'm getting at is: how do you think about making the internal case for investment in people and programs when the spreadsheet doesn't obviously support it? Felipe Uliani: You have to get away. It's beyond the spreadsheet. If you do things in laboratory, it doesn't work. Does not work. You have to understand it. I think it's a good starting point, but you have to understand the business. You have to listen to the managers. A lot of our role, in my opinion, is also educate the manager and [00:09:00] the business about internal equity and impact. Having a genuine understanding about what's the job, what's the scope of the job, what the level, how that impacts the market and bring all this data in a art, which is the art portion of our work, and translate that in numbers that make sense for the organization and for the employee. Kelsey Willock Jones: Can you tell me about a specific example of a program or a change that you've made, whether it's in benefits or compensation, where you were able to tell that story really effectively to get internal buy-in and get across the finish line? Felipe Uliani: Yeah. There was one of the companies that I work for, there was a big discrepancy in when you are hiring... when we are promoting employees from within versus bringing candidates outside. Candidates outside was making more than the candidates that the employees that are working for the company and is [00:10:00] showing loyalty, has been investing the company of their most value valuable asset, which is time. They are choosing that company to work for. So looking at that scenarios, me and my team, we did a study and say how much we need to invest in a multi-year project to bring people to market. Internal employees. It was a company that was about 10,000 employees, also global company. So we ended up doing a lot of rounds of presentations for different audiences. One for the managers, and then directors, and then VPs, and then the board. Every presentation is slightly different because we tailor for the audience. But we ended up getting approval, and the company ended up, at that time, investing about $1.6 million dollar USD back into the employees. [00:11:00] And that was super emotional. Employees were saying, "Oh, you guys are changing my life. I knew if I keep trusting the company, you guys will make things right." So that was a result of executives that was not only preaching but doing what they preach. Took some time to do it, but was we did it and it was super cool to see that project getting to the finish line. Kelsey Willock Jones: And I imagine in a, an initiative like that, it actually ends up saving the company money because you're not having to deal with those folks leaving. You're not having to spend significant amounts on recruiters. Sometimes brilliant talent exists within. We just need to pay them accordingly. So it's an obvious solution to a problem that so many companies have because people that come in from outside often, negotiate, whereas it can be more of a challenge internally. So such a cool initiative where, you know, advocating for your existing employees can lead to, heightened [00:12:00] satisfaction and maybe even other interesting cost savings. Felipe Uliani: That's right Kelsey Willock Jones: Can you tell me about an experiment specifically in either, compensation or your benefits strategy that didn't go the way you expected and what you learned from it? Felipe Uliani: There are things that we try and sometimes it's not successful. Sometimes we think that things that work in one country will also work in another. But in this global environment, you work for the 80% and then you work with the 20% exception, and you accommodate accordingly. For some countries, it's still a challenge in one of the companies that I work for to add the employee stock purchase plan. So we were able to have the employee stock purchase plan for US and a couple other countries, but for some small countries, we couldn't apply the same benefits for them. So that [00:13:00] led to silos. Our employee thinks they are in a company inside a company, but we were able to offset that with other benefits like increasing the 401(k) match or something that is more that were more representative to them for their country. For example, helping them pay their student loans or premium more days for paternity leave or maternity leave based on each country we had a couple solutions Kelsey Willock Jones: It's cool to also just hear, the permission to fail and that some things aren't gonna work in certain countries. It doesn't mean you don't try them, Felipe Uliani: Yeah Kelsey Willock Jones: there's way to, reallocate resources or think about ways in which, this specific country might value student loan repayment more than they do, an employee stock purchase plan. Felipe Uliani: That's right Kelsey Willock Jones: so you bring up an interesting topic actually specifically around student loans which is [00:14:00] financial health. How important is financial health for employees to Rimini? Felipe Uliani: Oh, it's extremely important. The company having a lot of initiatives to help to educate the employees on that topic, which I think is great, is the right thing to do Kelsey Willock Jones: And why is it important? Felipe Uliani: I think more than the work, people are living better than they started when they are working there. And I think helping them with what to do with their finances or talking about retirement and allow a safe space for them to think about it, ask question, I think is important and goes beyond the work they do, is also thinking then about the individual to be successful, not only the employee Kelsey Willock Jones: And can you talk a little bit about some of those programs that you've introduced? It sounds retirement assistance, maybe some financial literacy programs. What does it look like at the company? Felipe Uliani: We have [00:15:00] programs to help allows you to have some assistant and information to take care of your elderly parent. Kelsey Willock Jones: Mm-hmm. Felipe Uliani: Have some webinars to empower the employees with information about financial literacy and also talking more about the plans that we offer to them Kelsey Willock Jones: Yeah, the aging parent population has certainly started to skyrocket in recent years, and I imagine, affecting a lot of people in the workforce, taking them away from, productivity hours, especially given the not only financial stress but the, emotional burden of taking care. I'm definitely seeing a trend of more and more companies focus on, maybe not just maternity or retirement, but how do you actually take care of that population? Felipe Uliani: Yeah. Wellbeing and mindfulness I think play a big role now. I think employees are looking more for a balance on the mental health [00:16:00] in regards to support and also an environment where they can perform without burnout Kelsey Willock Jones: Have you seen any mental health programs really help move the needle in terms of burnout? Felipe Uliani: I believe the person is responsible for their career, the same thing for your mental health. I think a lot of companies provide employee assistant programs or information, but the employee is the one that needs to stop and say, "How I'm feeling today? What is happening with me?" Let's take community and really understand where I am at in my life and see what kind of help I need. If they don't do that, it's hard to help if the person doesn't know what they need to be, what kind of information they need at the moment Kelsey Willock Jones: Yeah, it's certainly employers offer so many different resources, and if a person doesn't use them obviously value can't be had. So there has to be some level of lean in into the programs being offered for them to be [00:17:00] effective When you think about shifts that are happening in compensation or benefits that are coming, what's a major shift that you see coming that you believe most HR leaders aren't ready for? Felipe Uliani: I think for compensation is bringing more clarity and more tailored, individualized solutions. The one-size-fits-all doesn't help as much as before. The world is changing. Companies are global or they are in different markets, so we need to really speak to the employee in a way that makes sense for him or for her. And benefits, I think it's the same thing. I think if we don't have a way to communicate in a generational way employee will lack understanding of what the company is offering Kelsey Willock Jones: And I imagine that also affects how you think about tailoring specific benefits to different international audiences. If we can't [00:18:00] personalize to a specific group, how can we intend to personalize to different countries therefore? I think that we're operating in such a world where as consumers, we're so used to personalized resources, personalized marketing, personalized, vitamins, everything. And I think you're entirely right in terms of, the companies and the companies that care for us and what they offer us. It's the shift that is certainly coming next. Felipe Uliani: If you don't understand your benefit or something, you don't use it. I think also the company needs to have some clarity directionally where the company wants to go and what is important. Luckily, we have a fantastic CEO and executive team that I really think The benefits are important for the company, and they are really intentional in asking the HR to be clear about how we operate. Sometimes even if we [00:19:00] are starting an office in a new country we wanna start that in the 75th percentile because this is so core in the organization that is really inspiring. So you need to choose where you wanna work for and how is the culture that you are in. Kelsey Willock Jones: It's really interesting because one of the thing-- I've interviewed a lot of folks, and I'm noticing most of the people I interview deeply care about their people. So I'm not knocking anyone that's been on the podcast, but I think that the broader conversation that I'm seeing show up in the HR field right now is there's kind of two lanes. One is the lane of HR leaders heavily caring and investing in their people and thinking about how to personalize resources. How do you provide the mental health tools? How do you think about caring for families, et cetera? And then the other is, this discourse right now of, there's a lot of job replacement going [00:20:00] on with the AI movement. Why do you think executive leadership cares so much about being in that first lane? Or at least that's what I'm hearing about continuing to invest in people. W- why do you believe that matters to them so much in a time like now where we're noticing such an influx in, non-human workforce? Felipe Uliani: I think I cannot speak to other companies, but the companies that I worked for, the company that I work for, I know the leaders and they really care. And that's one of the reasons that I keep work with them. It's not just about the numbers, it's also about the day-to-day, it's also about the culture, it's also about the team. And the employees are the ones doing the work. When they are satisfied and they feel things are fair and they have clarity Things work. So again, sometimes people will not have everything they want, but they understand the why. This is not the [00:21:00] policy, this is not how we operate. Things are clear. There is no confusion. And when we don't have confusion, you can set expectation The, there is a new shape in the culture, like they know what to expect is safe, And that brings more stability. We don't know what we don't know. Oh, I'm gonna go to another company. What they are not telling you? What's the culture there? But when you find a company that you like the team, you like the people, and the executives are-- they really care, you tend to stick to it Kelsey Willock Jones: I love that, and I think it's a great way to, wrap our conversation and think about, how to inspire whomever might be listening. I think that it's actually a huge value add to be a leader that shares the importance of investing in people, because you therefore attract people that really care about their job. And they're more bought in. They're, they understand their why, and [00:22:00] when you understand that why, as you described, it leads to a lot more meaningful work to be done. I love the way you framed it, Felipe, you so much for all of your wisdom and joining this conversation. Where can our listeners connect with you beyond it? Felipe Uliani: They can find me on LinkedIn, Felipe Uliani. I'll be there Kelsey Willock Jones: Great. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, and thank you so much again, especially and given we're in the holiday and I know last week was busy and really appreciate you lending your time. I hope you have a great rest of your week Felipe Uliani: Thank you. Thank you for your time as well