HRchat Podcast
Listen to the HRchat Podcast by HR Gazette to get insights and tips from HR leaders, influencers and tech experts. Topics covered include HR Tech, HR, AI, Leadership, Talent, Recruitment, Employee Engagement, Recognition, Wellness, DEI, and Company Culture.
Hosted by Bill Banham, Bob Goodwin, Pauline James, and other HR enthusiasts, the HRchat show publishes interviews with influencers, leaders, analysts, and those in the HR trenches 2-4 times each week.
The show is approaching 1000 episodes and past guests are from organizations including ADP, SAP, Ceridian, IBM, UPS, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Simon Sinek Inc, NASA, Gartner, SHRM, Government of Canada, Hacking HR, McLean & Company, UPS, Microsoft, Shopify, DisruptHR, McKinsey and Co, Virgin Pulse, Salesforce, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Coca-Cola Beverages Company.
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Podcast Music Credit"Funky One"Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
HRchat Podcast
Why Your Company's Benefits Plan Might Be Outdated with Lindsey Gage-Cole, GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions
In this episode of the HRchat Show, we delve into the urgent need for organizations to reevaluate their employee health benefit offerings. Lindsey Gage-Cole, Chief Transformation Officer at GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions, discusses the significant disconnect between employee expectations and actual employer actions when it comes to wellness support. A staggering 90% of Canadians believe in the necessity of support for well-being, yet fewer than half notice their employers taking action. This episode examines the transformative power of ancillary benefits, once seen as mere perks like massage therapy but now evolving to encompass holistic wellness programs tailored to meet the diverse needs of employees across various life stages.
Listeners will gain insights into the vital role that ongoing reviews of benefit plans play in responding to changing employee demographics and emerging health trends. We highlight the importance of tailoring wellness initiatives to address the unique dynamics of the workplace today, marked by an increase in generations coexisting under one roof and distinct challenges they face. If you’re an HR professional looking to enhance your organization’s approach to employee well-being, you won't want to miss the actionable strategies shared by Lindsay. We conclude with a call to action for listeners to reassess their wellness initiatives and consider how they can better support their workforce's needs. Join us for an enlightening discussion that promises to reshape your understanding of what employee well-being truly means in the modern workplace!
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The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.
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Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit HRGazettecom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Bannam. Nine in 10 Canadians believe it's crucial for employers to support employee well-being, but less than half actually notice their employers taking action. This gap is where ancillary benefits step in. Traditionally seen as supplemental, offering perks like massage and physiotherapy, ancillary benefits encompass much more From dieticians to hormone care. These services can provide holistic support that goes beyond standard health insurance, addressing the full spectrum of employee well-being. But how does offering non-traditional support like dieticians or hormone care really impact business outcomes? Well, here to answer this question is Lindsay Gage Cole, chief Transformation Officer over at Group Health Benefit Solutions. Lindsay, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the HR chat show today. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing very well, bill, thank you. How are you?
Speaker 2:I am good. I'm looking forward to our conversation, as we always do on this show. Maybe we can start with getting you to introduce yourself a little bit. Tell our listeners a bit about your career background, and then we'll get into the mission of the company.
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely. Thank you. I'm grateful to spend the time with you today. It's topics that we're going to be leaning into very passionate about, for sure, so by day.
Speaker 3:I am the Chief Transformation Officer at Group Health Benefits Solutions. I've been in the industry, both on the client side and the solution side, for 25 years now. Aside from my career accomplishments in this time, which I know, this is usually that spot where you start to list them out I'm going to spin that a little bit and just say that, you know, I really bring a passion to my job through first being, you know, a partner, mother, sister, friend, colleague and leader. In these 25 years, it's truly, actually each of those roles that inspire me on these topics that we'll discuss, and it really brings the real life intersection to the business side. The hat that I wear day in and day out does require the human element in this space, I feel. Of those 25 years, 16 have been spent at Group Health, where our mission is to transform the way Canadians experience benefits. We aim to provide high-value, cost-effective employee benefit solutions to Canadian businesses, ensuring that our clients can offer their employees comprehensive and valuable benefits that enhance their overall well-being.
Speaker 4:Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazettecom. And now back to the show.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think you've done that before. Good work. And what's the top thing that gets you up in the morning, that gets you going?
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean, I mentioned it in the opening there for sure, it's the passion to be able to impact and make a difference in somebody's day, and so of course I can do that through my role as a leader at core, but spending the time to, I love change, I love, I value the. My core value is that curiosity, being able to ask those questions and really challenge the normal and see change through.
Speaker 2:Lindsay. Why is it important for organizations to revisit their group health benefits on a regular basis, especially in the current workplace landscape? It's scary times out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I mean scary and evolving right. Yeah, absolutely, I mean scary and evolving right, especially in the last four to five years, coming out such a significant event there in 2020 and beyond, and the impact of families and just how we function differently in today's world. We've gone forward, we've gone backwards, and so I think you know, in many ways, we have to revisit our health benefit plans regularly. It's crucial due to the constantly changing landscape, and so you know factors such as the changing employee demographics. You know the aging population, emerging health trends Trends is a big word in there right, like we pick up trends so easily now through social media in ways that we never did before, and so those trends they move quickly and they're volatile in many ways.
Speaker 3:Advancements in medical technology and practitioner space I think all really impact the effectiveness of benefits. By reviewing these plans, I think you know they can ensure you're meeting really, at the end of the day, there's there's the employee need, their employee or need, and it's we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the employees, staying competitive in the job market as an employer and, ultimately, that fiscal responsibility of managing our costs, which we can't can't ignore as businesses just a quick follow-up on one thing you mentioned there, and that's um, the different generations within the workplace.
Speaker 2:Um, so, the boomers a lot of them have retired now, but actually a lot of them are staying around yeah, the silver generation is a term that I heard by aihr the other day when I was listening to a podcast about trends for 2025. Um, what are, what are those unique dynamics that we're seeing in the workplace at the moment by having up to five generations?
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100%. You know it's fascinating, right? Because there's the element of elder care that we never really used to talk about much, and there's this peaked interest in generations to say you know, it's hard enough to take care of myself, but I have this responsibility to take care of my aging parents, who are also under pressure and maybe still trying to work but aging out on benefit plans Plus. They need additional support, and I have my brand, my young and my youthful family that has unique and dynamic needs.
Speaker 3:The increase in the mental health space that that, you know, maybe even as soon as recent as six years ago, we didn't talk about to the extent that we do today, and so it's those stages of life. I'd be remiss to not now mention something that's really passionate to me in this space the life stages women in midlife in which we have women balancing their careers and families, you know, more than ever under the same pressures that we all are, but going through a stage of life where hormones are wild and crazy. And so I could go on and on about this, Bill. There's just so many pieces to this in which there's great opportunity for us to pay closer attention to these stages.
Speaker 2:I'm going to mix things up now, as I like to do on this show sometimes, and the next question I'm going to challenge you to answer in 60 seconds or less what, bill, you can't do that? You didn't tell me that before we hit record today. I just want you to briefly talk a bit about ancillary benefits, if you don't mind. For those who are less familiar, just give us a very quick overview specifically how they can contribute to improving employee engagement, recruitment and retention.
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely so.
Speaker 3:Ancillary benefits even in my day to day, I realize we throw this word out there, and you know what is that?
Speaker 3:They're truly supplementary benefits that complement your core health insurance plan. Right, and where core health insurance is that, those traditional spaces of health, you can go to the pharmacy and pick up your prescribed, prescribed drugs, your dental plan. You know, I think, as health trends have evolved, ancillary benefits have as well, and what we consider to be historic ancillary benefits historically and if you, if you, did some research on this, somebody would say, well, is it massage and chiropractic care? But we started putting those into our health benefit plans through our employers many, many years ago, and so today it's more about the stuff that I've already talked about and then highlighted is those supporting those life stages comprehensive packages that can improve employee engagement to support people staying at work in stressful times, in times of pressure, access to services that may not be funded by an employer, but access to those services is simply a solution to what somebody needs in the answer of their day, to help them feel more engaged at work and able to stay present through the pressures.
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Speaker 2:Do you think there's a disconnect between employees wanting well-being support and employers taking action? If so, what's the? What are the first steps that businesses can take to close that gap?
Speaker 3:Engagement, so truly understanding the needs of employees. Don't just tick that box that says we have a benefits plan. Tailor that benefits plan and it doesn't always have to be about the fear of not having the budget to expand to that Cadillac plan. Go out and do surveys with your employees. Find out what's important to them and you may be surprised how far a budget can stretch when you're looking at a focus of employees saying we need more in the ancillary space, we're okay in that core space. I think that's really the evolution of where we're at and to close that gap, it's just stopping and pausing to get the understanding.
Speaker 2:Let's talk a bit about the integrated mental health services, such as counseling, mindfulness training, stress management. I've recently just completed, uh, recording a couple of seasons with dr bill howard. Um, uh, other canadians will be familiar with dr bill I'm sure he's written for the global mail for many years um, and we were talking about crisis management and, yeah, uh, these sorts of additional trainings which perhaps not offered enough, but perhaps they should be, because they've got an impact on on the employee engagement, on the employee productivity as well. Talk to us a bit about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, absolutely, it starts first and foremost. We've always had these traditional EAP plans that go into benefit packages, and that was just in a crisis you can have access to. But that's a very reactive approach, isn't it? And I think that's where we've evolved to now is really focusing on that proactivity of the space. Proactivity of the space, so making, just simply making these services accessible counseling, mindfulness, training, stress management, financial literacy in a world in which we're under such financial pressure, literally not being able to pay your bill and we used to say, you know, don't bring your personal into work. Well, but how can you not, right? And so providing simple access points into those spaces, allowing people to integrate that into their total wellness care overall.
Speaker 6:Hi everybody. This is Bob Goodwin, president at Career Club. Imagine with me for a minute a workplace where leaders and employees are energized, engaged and operating at their very best. At Career Club, we work with both individuals and organizations to help combat stress and burnout that lead to attrition, disengagement and higher health care costs. We can help your organization and your workforce thrive, boosting both productivity and morale across the board. To learn more about how we might help you and your company, visit us at careerclub.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Our audience today are, of course, hr pros and related. What should HR and people directors consider when evaluating their current group health benefit plans to ensure that they are future-proof?
Speaker 3:they're future-ready it earlier, but staying informed about those emerging health trends, understanding the diverse needs of workplace, leveraging technology, providing more personalized and accessible benefits. As I just mentioned previously, you know, it's not hard to do surveys anymore. There's so many tools out there for us as businesses to engage with our employees and just seek the understanding. But I don't want to disregard the fact that we often, you know, we ignore hard conversations and we ignore fact-finding missions in fear of what it's going to then cost us to address those later. But there's ways, there's simple ways and creative ways to take that feedback, respond to it and help people understand the balance and the responsibility in the business with meeting the needs of employees. At the end, the biggest cost that we can save is having employees engaged and actively at work right just before we find out how folks can connect with you.
Speaker 2:What else? What else would you like to add to our conversation today?
Speaker 3:yeah, you know, I think it's. It's challenging the norm, right? Um, wake up, get out of bed in the morning. You know how can I impact people, whether it's the personal connections or through what we've talked about today and trying to relate and understand kindness services. You know, benefits, as we take it to the next extreme can do, and I think that's it. Just pause, right, it's busy, everybody's busy and everybody's under the same and familiar pressures. It's a pause, it's a taking moment.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then, once they've taken that pause and they then want to connect with you, lindsay, how can they do that? Is that through LinkedIn? Is that your email? Are you all over the different socials such as Instagram and whatnot? And, of course, how can they learn more about group health benefit solutions?
Speaker 3:100%. So, first and foremost, group health benefit solutions, visit our website at grouphelfca. As I'm sure you can hear, and I'm told often, I'm very passionate about these topics, both personally and professionally. Certainly welcome to continue the dialogue through connecting with me on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, that just leaves me to say for today. Lindsay, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 3:Thank you, bill, it's been great.
Speaker 2:And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.
