Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Melissa A. Kaspari, CHRO at Penhall Company and Penhall Technologies
Transcript
- Kelsey Willock (00:42) Hi everyone and welcome Melissa Kisperi, CHRO at Penhal Company and Penhal Technologies. We're so excited to have you. To kick us off, I'd love for you to introduce yourself to our audience. Melissa Kaspari (00:54) Thanks, thank you Kelsey for that and I'm happy to be here. So yes, my name is Melissa Casperi and I am a CHRO at Penn Hall and Penn Hall Technologies. I like to say I put the human back in human resources and I believe deeply that we all need to find our happy. I'm super passionate about aligning HR to the operations of the business and I love being the agent of positive and needed change. Not change for the sake of change, but positive and needed change. So I got into HR because it was literally the one path in college that had the least amount of math requirements. So it truly was a gamble, but it worked. Kelsey Willock (01:26) Thank you. Melissa Kaspari (01:33) out well. Kelsey Willock (01:34) Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. And before we dive into all the amazing work that you do and you have done in your career, I'd love to share with our audience a little bit more about you. So if you'll indulge me, I'd love to start with your earliest memory with money and your earliest paycheck and how you think it shaped how you see freedom, security, and even responsibility in your work. Melissa Kaspari (01:37) Yeah. Yeah. So I had a really fun time thinking about this one because I, several stories came up, but the one I'm going to share with you is, it's kind of funny. So I grew up in a middle-class family. My dad worked, my mom stayed at home and it was probably around age 14 and I always had what I needed and I rarely received the things that I wanted. So I grew up in the eighties. So Jordache jeans, the designer jeans, that was a big deal. So to get a pair of designer jeans was a big deal. Right? So, and this was around the time where I was just really kind of understanding, you know, the value of money. And the story is that I'm going to share made me realize how important it is to work hard to earn the things that you desire. Whether it's a house, a vacation, but more importantly, to earn a living to have a good career so you can have stuff, I guess. So here's the story. Kelsey Willock (02:34) Thank Okay. Melissa Kaspari (02:56) was one Christmas and I had a very close friend of mine. She had a room full of Christmas presents and she was super excited to show me. So the hot color that year was turquoise. And one of the few gifts that I got was a turquoise bandana. So as she showed me all her gifts that she got that Christmas, most of those things matched my bandana. We laughed really hard because I kept saying, well, that'll go with my bandana. Well, that'll go with my bandana. So, but I remember remember that moment that I wasn't jealous, but I knew as an adult I wanted more than just a bandana. But I knew if I wanted it, I had to work for it. Kelsey Willock (03:36) Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. And how do you think your money story has influenced how you think about pay and benefits for your employees. You kind of touched on it allows you to have stuff and the things that you enjoy, whether it's home ownership, but can you kind of double click and tell us a little bit more about that? Melissa Kaspari (03:56) Well, I guess from my perspective, it's just about understanding money. Right? I mean, we all need it. We all need it to live. But I think some of us just were never taught about money. We didn't have the luxury of parents who probably didn't understand it themselves. And it's not like school really teaches us it. So I do believe as an employer that that's part of our responsibility is to help employees understand the financial aspect of life as well as a worker. Kelsey Willock (04:30) Right, I think that so often we forget as an employer we are a part of the lifeblood of their rich life. We are directly related to creating the space in which they can make decisions about how they want to spend money. So I love that it's entirely true. So I want to shift into talking a little bit about today's challenges and how you think about benefits and the real impact you're able to make. So where do you see compensation and benefits breaking down most often today, whether it's pay equity, transparency, understanding total rewards? Melissa Kaspari (05:06) Yeah. You know, I honestly think compensation and benefits breaks down in a few areas. So the first area is for an employee to understand their worth, truly. Because I have seen so many employees stay loyal to a company for decades without proper pay increases. They stay because they love what they do. And throughout the years, they've accepted minimal increases or maybe in some cases, no increases. for their hard work and loyalty. So that's the first spot, the first thing that I think where there's a breakdown. But the second area I think there's a breakdown is fully understanding their benefits, right? Oftentimes employees don't take the time to understand the benefit offerings from their employees, from their employer. You know, why 401k is important or how to advocate for themselves at the doctor on services. Kelsey Willock (05:51) Hmm. ⁓ Now. Melissa Kaspari (06:06) or why short-term disability is a critical benefit, or taking advantage of the supplemental life insurance because we get such an incredible rate on that investment, and it's truly an investment. So I know personally, I spend a lot of time on designing the benefits, doing the benefit plan design, and I'm always trying to find the best options available that the company can afford, but also knowing I'm an employee too, and Kelsey Willock (06:13) you . Melissa Kaspari (06:36) What do I want to see? are the benefits that are going to benefit myself and my co-worker? So I'm looking at it out of both angles, if you will. And I just wish employees could see the time and the effort that's put into designing that every year. And unfortunately, sometimes they only see what the cost is out of their paycheck. I get it, though. I totally understand it. Kelsey Willock (07:04) Right, when employees are so You know, inundated with both life and work can be challenging to take a pause and really reflect on all the rewards that their employers offer them. prior we were talking about how comp and benefits break down, whether it's pay equity, transparency, and some of the things that you had shared were folks don't always necessarily understand their own worth, nor do they understand their holistic benefits packages. And so have you noticed trends in which folks maybe do understand their total rewards more effectively or do understand their self-worth at work? Are you noticing those folks be more empowered and is there a correlation between those that aren't using those benefits feeling more stuck at work? Melissa Kaspari (07:48) A little bit. I think there's just some employees that ask more questions because we spend a lot of time explaining the benefits to them. But oftentimes people kind of like tune out, right? My wife handles that or my husband handles that. Kelsey Willock (07:54) Mm-hmm. Right. Melissa Kaspari (08:06) But I do believe that it's our responsibility as an employer to provide that education, to provide those resources. But those that do or show an express interest in it, I think they get it, you know. But it's trying to get everybody on that same page of understanding what those perks or those benefits are available to them. Kelsey Willock (08:22) Right. Melissa Kaspari (08:32) You can't force people to, you know, want to gain more education on it. Some people are just not interested. Kelsey Willock (08:41) Right, right. Can you share, you had mentioned a little bit about transforming lives, can you share one change you've seen within your organization that you feel has moved from the approach of more so just attracting talent to really transforming the lives of your employees? Melissa Kaspari (08:56) Yeah, I love this question because it's about care, right? Leaders that care, those are the ones that I admire most. Transforming lives, you do this by caring for the whole person, not just providing health care benefits to them, but... letting them know that you care about them. Other benefits are providing, again, caring for that whole person, their mental health, their financial wellness. There's so many different things that we as leaders can provide to our employees, not just, hey, good morning, see you later, here's your job, but really, truly caring about them. Right now I'm working on a benefit Kelsey Willock (09:24) Mm. Melissa Kaspari (09:41) plan offering that will provide employees with budgeting assistance and education. I'm like so excited to roll this out because Kelsey Willock (09:47) Thank you. Melissa Kaspari (09:49) I know it'll make a difference. It's going to make a difference. I work in commercial construction and this is going to be a great benefit that I can't wait to share with employees. Kelsey Willock (09:55) Thank you. It sounds so needed and necessary right now in a time where folks feel so overwhelmed by their finances. When we think about things like debt levels in this country and inflation, people are really stressed about it. So it's phenomenal to hear that the company is so focused on meeting folks exactly where they need to be met in a time where they might really be feeling that pain. So although Melissa Kaspari (10:04) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Kelsey Willock (10:29) we might not have seen the measurable impact of that specific benefit quite yet. Can you tell me about a time where you have introduced perhaps a benefit or some type of a program where you saw measurable impact in the sense of transforming folks' lives and what that impact looked like, whether it was increased engagement in your workforce, increased retention? Tell us a little bit about that. Melissa Kaspari (10:53) This goes back several years and there was a benefit that I had introduced. It was in and around legal support. A lot of questions about, you know, I need help with a will or with a rent agreement, you know, having an attorney look it over. And to some people, they don't have an attorney on speed dial in their phone, right? So we introduced that. It was a voluntary benefit, but it was a benefit nonetheless that had we not offered it, they wouldn't have had. Kelsey Willock (11:25) Thank you. Melissa Kaspari (11:29) you know, opportunity to engage with an attorney to get them. Kelsey Willock (11:33) No. Melissa Kaspari (11:34) to get them information and just help them along the way. another benefit I've introduced is an employee assistance program. That was before the days of the attention on mental health. ⁓ And that was a benefit that I encouraged all employees to use, all managers to use. Most companies have that now. Most companies, that's just kind of a staple in their Kelsey Willock (11:40) Thank you. Hmm. Thank ⁓ Melissa Kaspari (12:02) package and it is underutilized. is underutilized and oftentimes people are embarrassed. They don't want to say or admit that they need help. ⁓ But I'm a huge advocate for it and when you work in a male dominated field like construction, sometimes it's really hard to get men to see that it's okay to not be okay. And so we talk about mental health and well-being a lot at Kelsey Willock (12:13) Okay. Melissa Kaspari (12:32) hall. Kelsey Willock (12:34) Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And in a world in which folks did use those tools and services more effectively, what are you most excited to get out of that? Is it keeping folks, the company for longer, having folks be happier, having folks be more engaged with the organization? What does success look like of a mental health program and beyond to you? Melissa Kaspari (12:57) Yeah, well, honestly, finding they're happy. People deserve to be happy. you know, life is hard, life is messy. And so often we get stuck in the grind of every day that we forget how to be happy. And being able to talk to somebody through whatever is going on in your life, it's helpful. So that to me is a win when you have people taking advantage of those benefits and you start to see a Kelsey Willock (13:01) Mm. Melissa Kaspari (13:27) person every day. You see that person showing up with a smile on their face. You see that person having a more positive outlook. That's the win. Kelsey Willock (13:38) Thank you so much for sharing that. think that it's so important to remember your employer is there for you to achieve this version of happiness. It's not just the nine to five clocking in, clocking out, and the employer isn't thinking about what's next. fantastic to hear that you are really focused on really contributing to an individual's whole self, including their happiness outside of work. So thank you for sharing that with us. So I want to talk about looking ahead. And so what does compensation and benefits trends, what compensation and benefits trends do you believe will shape the employee experience at your company specifically in the next year or two? Melissa Kaspari (14:21) Hmm, that's a really good question I Think it's it's going towards the the whole person the the When you think about compensation and benefits, there's a lot of parts and pieces to that. so moving to that more holistic approach of caring for the whole person, not just health care, but total well-being because... People, I'll just say people, ⁓ there's, again, life is messy. We've got a lot going on. So it's, as an employer, it's about the physical, it's about the mental, it's about the financial, the professional development, and the social health. Every age, we have different ages of employees, and in those different stages, there's different needs. So. understanding that one size does not fit all and that people at different phases in their life or in their career need different offerings. And so that is kind of the direction that we're headed at Penn Hall is bringing all of that together, not just focusing on health, but the mental, you know, the financial, professional development, all of it. Kelsey Willock (15:41) It's so evident in what you're already sharing. for example, the focus on making sure folks use and leverage existing mental health care benefits, introducing existing or new benefits such as the budgeting program. So it's so clear to me that is the direction that your company is heading in. And often I would say it is so important because people in this day and age wanna be met where they are and not treated as this one size fits all approach. Melissa Kaspari (15:51) Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Kelsey Willock (16:13) So what mindset shifts or guardrails do you believe leaders need to keep pay fair and empowering? Melissa Kaspari (16:21) Hmm. Well, I'm in this exercise today of looking at compensation. And we often book or put comp and benefits kind of in the same package, But we truly look, I look at them as two separate things. It's part of that total rewards. So for me and what my team and I are doing is we're looking at them separately. We're looking at the compensation, right? Kelsey Willock (16:39) Mm. Melissa Kaspari (16:51) Are we? And going out to market and looking at all of our positions and what is the market saying that the pay comp is for these various roles? Because it's important for myself as a leader and for the other leaders in the organization is that we are compensating to market. That we are paying our employees a fair market wage. And so we are looking at all of those things. Where are we to market? Where are our employees to market? Kelsey Willock (17:03) Hmm. Mm. you Melissa Kaspari (17:24) But then the benefits are the other side of it and that includes all those things that we talked about but also helping them in their career to gain more skills and to gain more knowledge so if they are able and willing to grow that they have opportunities internally to do so not having to go look outside the organization. Kelsey Willock (17:51) I love that you bring that up because I think so often times we only look at our benefits in of compensation as what we're paid and what benefits we have. We don't often include that kind of learning. development side of things. But I love how you bring that up in terms of pay equity, because if you are empowered to learn, who's to say you can't find other roles within your organization that might have higher pay? So I think that's a phenomenal example. Can you share with our audience a little bit about the tools and particularly data that you're using to help measure and improve pay equity or well-being? Melissa Kaspari (18:16) Exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's in most companies spend a lot of time on this. I know I'm spending a lot of time on it. So today, the process for me is manual. I don't have some of the right tools in place. So I'm researching various platforms for that. You know, what is the best plan platform? What are some automations that Kelsey Willock (18:46) Hmm. Melissa Kaspari (18:55) we can implement and employ to ensure that internal pay equity exists. And so there's a lot, a lot to do with that. I just haven't found the right tool that fits what we need. So I'm doing it the old school way. I'm doing it manually. And it is working for now, but I am researching some external tools to help out with that. Kelsey Willock (19:20) You know, sometimes the old-fashioned way is in a bad way because it's not bad and I imagine that doing it yourself in a manual way gives you such better perspective when assessing new tools because you know exactly what you need. Right. Melissa Kaspari (19:24) It's not, it's not bad. Yes, you do. And I'm literally going line by line. I'm touching every candidate's or every employee's file. I'm looking at all the details. So sometimes with tools, when it's automated, you kind of lose that personal touch a little bit. So I don't mind. Kelsey Willock (19:54) Right. Well, in the beginning of our conversation, you had mentioned, you you wish people could really see all the hard work that goes into creating benefits packages and compensation packages that are meaningful. And hearing something like that to me says going line by line, you're certainly going above and beyond for all of your people. Melissa Kaspari (20:09) Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Kelsey Willock (20:18) So can you tell us a little bit about a 30-day experiment listeners could try to boost, say, their financial well-being or engagement? Melissa Kaspari (20:29) God, I like this question too. Because I've done this personally. So I have a slight addiction to Amazon. And so I have recently started an Kelsey Willock (20:38) You Melissa Kaspari (20:42) No purchase Amazon. Sorry Amazon, but you make it too easy for buying things so I have done several of these challenges where I do not buy anything new for 30 days and I'm very intentional about it and I It kills me. It's hard you guys I will admit but Kelsey Willock (20:56) and Melissa Kaspari (21:04) A 30 day challenge, don't buy anything new. We don't need anything. We don't need anything. If we need something, maybe we resale it. I love to resale, So that would be a 30 day challenge. Don't buy anything. Don't buy anything new. Of course you're gonna need some necessities, but if you don't need it, wait 30 days. Kelsey Willock (21:24) What. Melissa Kaspari (21:25) And another one that I've done is the envelope challenge, where you set up an envelope system. And it's through Dave Ramsey's program. And that is exciting, because at the end of it, you've got this cache saved up, and it's an envelope. So that's another challenge that I could suggest. Kelsey Willock (21:30) Bye. . Thank Well, thank you for those nuggets of wisdom. I absolutely love the 30 day challenge that you originally mentioned because it's really about creating a habit and it often takes us all about 30 days to build a habit. And so if you can make it past 30 days without buying Amazon or putting a few dollars away into an envelope, who's to say after 60 days, after 90 days, you don't keep doing that. You might. And so it's a phenomenal example of small, simple things can make great impact in your life. So Melissa, I just want to say thank you so much for joining us today. I learned a ton from you, specifically around your focus on the whole person and approaching compensation, total rewards and benefits from a much more holistic approach, which leads to ultimately thinking about how we can really Melissa Kaspari (22:20) Yeah. Absolutely. Kelsey Willock (22:44) help foster happiness for people. And happiness isn't just one thing, it's often the physical, the mental, the financial. I even loved how you had mentioned the social. And I also really appreciated that this isn't just a one plus one equals two equation. This is really nuanced. We have to treat people individually. One size certainly doesn't fit all. And so I loved how you had spoken about that. So. Melissa Kaspari (22:51) and Kelsey Willock (23:11) Yes, I would love for Melissa to share a little bit more about how she can connect with you. So Melissa, please take it away. Melissa Kaspari (23:18) You can reach me at mcasberry at penhall.com or on LinkedIn. Check me out on LinkedIn and I'd love to connect with you. I'd love to help you on your journey to finding your happy. Kelsey Willock (23:34) Well, thank you so much, Melissa. Super enjoyed this conversation and can't wait for all of our listeners to tune in. Thank you so much. Melissa Kaspari (23:38) Me too, thank you. Alright, thanks Kelsey. Have a great day. Kelsey Willock (23:45) You too.