Lindsey Garito
AVP Total Rewards
Montefiore Health
Episode 388
Mastering Total Rewards: Strategic Personalization for Health, Wealth, Well-being
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleNovember 13, 2024 · 15:48
Thesis
“Total Rewards is a strategic and holistic portfolio that deeply impacts employees' health, wealth, and well-being, requiring continuous personalization, technological leverage, and cross-functional collaboration to effectively attract, retain, and develop talent.”
Show notes
"Total Rewards is not just a trendy renaming of benefits and compensation." Lindsey Garito, AVP of Total Rewards at Montefiore Health, says this directly—and then spends the rest of her conversation demonstrating what it actually should be: a strategic portfolio that integrates benefits, compensation, wellness, performance, and career mobility into a coherent value proposition. The distinction matters because organizations that treat Total Rewards as an administrative function will always be outcompeted by organizations that treat it as a talent strategy.
Garito's work at Montefiore (a major academic health system in New York) surfaces an underappreciated insight: healthcare organizations can turn their healthcare costs into a competitive advantage. By being self-insured, analyzing claims data to close gaps in care, and offering domestic network tiers, Montefiore is measuring outcomes like primary care visit rates and EAP utilization—not just cost trends. The language she's working to shift is from "administering benefit plans" to "positively impacting health and wellbeing." That reframe changes what you measure, what you offer, and how you talk to employees about what's available to them.
Her most important career lesson: don't work in a silo. It's easy to do in HR generally, and especially in Total Rewards. The programs that actually get utilized are the ones that business leaders and managers have been involved in designing—because they know what employees actually need in a way that a benefits team working in isolation often doesn't. Personalization at scale requires that organizational intelligence, not just demographic data.
- Total Rewards as a strategic portfolio: integrating benefits, compensation, wellness, performance, and career mobility into one coherent story
- Healthcare as competitive advantage: how self-insurance, claims data analysis, and network design can differentiate you as an employer
- Shifting the language: from "administering plans" to "improving health and wellbeing"—and why it changes everything downstream
- Metrics that matter in Total Rewards: primary care visit rates, EAP utilization, program engagement—not just cost trends
- Breaking the HR silo: why involving business leaders and managers in benefit design is the key to actual program utilization
- Personalization at scale: understanding workforce demographics to ensure offerings are relevant across a diverse employee population
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What you'll take away
- 1Total Rewards should be a strategic portfolio integrating benefits, compensation, wellness, performance, and career mobility, tailored to an organization's unique value proposition.
- 2Personalization at scale is critical for total rewards; deeply understanding workforce demographics and needs ensures offerings are meaningful and impactful to diverse employee populations.
- 3Healthcare organizations can transform healthcare costs into an advantage by being self-insured, analyzing claims data to close gaps in care, and offering domestic network tiers.
- 4Measure total rewards effectiveness through outcomes like primary care visit rates and program utilization (e.g., EAP), using data to drive strategy and communication efforts.
- 5Avoid HR silos by actively collaborating with business leaders and managers to understand employee needs and ensure their support for new programs, acting as change champions.
- 6Continuous agility and innovation are essential in total rewards, keeping a pulse on market trends and internal organizational needs, especially with evolving areas like AI in HR.
What most organizations get wrong
- •I think total rewards is not just a trendy renaming of benefits and compensation, which you'll see sometimes out there.
In Lindsey's words
“I think total rewards is not just a trendy renaming of benefits and compensation, which you'll see sometimes out there.”
She defines total rewards as a strategic portfolio, pushing back against a superficial understanding.
“What we do in Total Rewards really has such impact on people's lives. We're contributing to their health, their wealth, their well-being.”
Emphasizes the profound, life-changing impact of effective total rewards strategies beyond just financial aspects.
“We really want to shift that terminology that we're using and really focus on health and wellbeing and how can we positively impact our people.”
Highlights the strategic shift from administering benefits to proactively impacting employee health and well-being.
“Definitely not working in a silo and It's very easy to do that in HR, no matter what team you're on, especially in total rewards.”
A critical lesson learned, advocating for cross-functional collaboration to genuinely understand and address employee needs.
“Stay agile, stay focused on improving and innovating, especially in total rewards. It's always changing. There's always new benefits.”
Stresses the continuous need for adaptability and forward-thinking in the ever-evolving total rewards landscape.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Employee financial stress: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024.
- •Healthcare as a cost center: Many organizations view healthcare solely as a significant expense rather than a strategic advantage for talent attraction and retention.
- •Lack of personalized total rewards: Difficulty in tailoring total rewards strategies to align with the unique needs and demographics of a diverse workforce, leading to suboptimal impact and engagement.
- •Gaps in preventative care: Low utilization of primary care visits and preventative screenings among employees indicates missed opportunities for improving health outcomes and increasing long-term costs.
- •Underutilized benefits: Employees often don't understand or engage effectively with available benefits like EAP programs, leading to wasted resources and unmet employee needs.
- •Siloed HR functions: HR teams, particularly in total rewards, can easily operate in isolation, missing valuable insights from business leaders and managers about employee needs and hindering strategic alignment.
- •Keeping up with market changes: The rapidly evolving landscape of benefits and HR technology makes it challenging for organizations to stay innovative and competitive in their total rewards offerings.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
Lindsay Garrido talks about her career journey on Built By People podcast
Built By People: Lindsay Garrido
Total rewards can be used to attract, retain, and engage employees
Lindsay, Could You Walk Us Through Total Rewards Strategy?
You're using healthcare for employees as an advantage, which is innovative
WSJD.com: Healthcare and Wellbeing
What are some of the metrics that you're relying on to assess effectiveness of your total rewards strategy
In the Elevator: The Total Rewards Strategy
It's important to involve your business leaders, involve your managers
What's Your Biggest Career Learning?
Stay agile, stay focused on improving and innovating, Lindsay says
A Taste of Total Rewards: Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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