“The Stretch: Workforce health and benefits – expanded" is a cutting-edge podcast series hosted by Aon that explores the latest breakthroughs and emerging ideas in workplace health and benefits. Join us as we stretch the boundaries of what's possible in this space by uncovering revolutionary approaches, interviewing thought leaders and spotlighting organizations that are setting new standards.
This podcast series seeks to highlight innovative thinking when it comes to health and benefits. In this conversational setting, podcast host Kevin Fyock will engage guests in a digestible discussion about forward-thinking approaches to the topic at hand to inspire listeners — benefits leaders, HR professionals and other interested parties — to challenge the status quo and investigate new and innovative approaches to workplace health and benefits.
Check out the podcast episodes below.
⬆- Ep. 11 The Art of Engagement: HR Strategies for Boosting Benefit Usage
- Ep. 10 From Meals to Medicine: Redefining Food’s Role in Employee Health and Wellbeing
- Ep. 9 The Rise of ICHRAs: Exploring Alternatives to Group Plans
- Ep. 8 Building a Culture of Care: How To Offer More Meaningful Caregiver Support
- Ep. 7 Breaking Down Financial Barriers to Accessing Quality Care
- Ep. 6 Cultivating a Neurodiverse Workforce
- Ep. 5 Cancer Care Today and How Employers Can Keep Up
- Ep. 4 Gut Check: Innovations Transforming Digestive Health & Employee Wellbeing
- Ep. 3 The Health Plan of Tomorrow
- Ep. 2 How Generative AI Is Making Benefits More Accessible and Empowering
- Ep. 1 Beyond Reproductive Health: Employee Benefits for Women
Ep. 11
The Art of Engagement: HR Strategies for Boosting Benefit Usage
HR professionals are always looking for new ways to get employees engaged with their benefits. It’s a notoriously difficult task, but it’s an important one. To encourage both benefit use and behavior change, HR needs to think less like benefits administrators and more like salespeople. Joining us to share practical tips on engaging employees as consumers is Gary Loveman, founder and CEO of Well.
Ep. 10
From Meals to Medicine: Redefining Food’s Role in Employee Health and Wellbeing
Employers have long used food to motivate, reward and connect employees. Consider ice cream socials, pizza parties and happy hours. But, with a growing awareness of how our food choices affect our health and our work, innovative employers are beginning to think of food in a new way. Some are even positioning food as medicine. Joining us to explore the most recent research on this topic and how food can be used to elevate our health and productivity is Dr. Richard Safeer, chief medical director of employee health and wellbeing at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Ep. 9
The Rise of ICHRAs: Exploring Alternatives to Group Plans
Historically, there have been few, if any, alternatives to employers offering and managing their employee group insurance benefits; Especially for specific segments of employer populations that lack eligibility to group plans like gig workers. But one avenue in particular is garnering increasing interest among small and large employers alike — ICHRAs. ICHRAs, or Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, are relatively new to the market, so even many HR pros may be unfamiliar with what they are and why they are gaining interest. Joining us to unpack ICHRAs and where they may fit into an employer’s strategy is Andrew Reeves, SVP & general manager at Gravie.
Ep. 8
Building a Culture of Care: How To Offer More Meaningful Caregiver Support
In recent years, many employers have created or updated generous parental leave packages for employees with growing families. It’s an undoubtedly helpful benefit and one that doubles as a powerful recruitment and retention tool. But it only scratches the surface of what today’s caregivers really need. Joining us to discuss how employers can offer more meaningful support to caregivers is Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, CEO of Wellthy.
Ep. 7
Breaking Down Financial Barriers to Accessing Quality Care
With open enrollment just around the corner, many benefit leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that they are approaching the finish line after all the planning, hard work and many pivots over the course of the last year. Yet, with healthcare trend at its highest level in a decade, many of those same leaders are finding themselves in a tough position of having to explaining the higher cost increases passed along to employees against the backdrop of an affordability crisis. Here to help us break down this issue and discuss why, and how, employers can make healthcare more affordable is Brian Whorley, founder and CEO of Paytient.
Ep. 6
Cultivating a Neurodiverse Workforce
To build a workplace that’s inclusive of neurodivergent employees, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Rather, employers must build an agile culture that is welcoming, accommodating and empowering to each employee — regardless of the way their brains work. In this episode, we discuss what neurodiversity is and the practical strategies that create a culture that supports a neurodiverse workforce. Joining us in the discussion is Melanie Fountaine, co-founder and COO of Joshin, a modern support solution for disability and neurodivergence.
Ep. 5
Cancer Care Today and How Employers Can Keep Up
In this episode, we will talk about one of the foremost issues concerning employee health: cancer. We’re joined by Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer of the American Cancer Society. Together, we will illuminate the current state of the cancer landscape, from the shifts in epidemiology to the advancements in prevention and care. We’ll also discuss the challenges employers face, explore the solutions to tackling those challenges, and conclude the episode with a glimpse into the future of cancer care.
Ep. 4
Gut Check: Innovations Transforming Digestive Health & Employee Wellbeing
In this episode of the Stretch, we’re going to talk about digestive health. It’s a topic that has long been under-discussed — as our guest, Cylinder CEO Bill Snyder, puts it, “It’s uncomfortable for people to talk about GI symptoms, so many don’t realize how common their symptoms are.” But these days, the issue is less taboo and more important as employers struggle to address a problem that affects 1 in 4 Americans. Together, we’ll break down the issues impacting the digestive health landscape and, most pressingly, dive into the innovations providing relief and reducing healthcare claims.
Ep. 3
The Health Plan of Tomorrow
It is common to associate the term ‘virtual care’ with what was originally branded as ‘telehealth’ — a decades old alternative to in-person urgent care for simple issues — a minor sinus infection or a case of pink eye. In this episode, we’ll explore how, in reality, virtual care has evolved and expanded to a point where we’d say, over the next decade, it will be a foundational element to how care is delivered and how health plans and health plan designs will modernize. It will become increasingly clear that the future of care is hybrid. We’re joined in this discussion by Matt Cook, CCO of Firefly Health.
Ep. 2
How Generative AI Is Making Benefits More Accessible and Empowering
Artificial intelligence is a topic on many employers’ and HR leaders’ minds. Most are thinking about the technology in terms of how they can use it to improve talent acquisition or shore up learning and development. What’s less discussed is how some of the newest forms of AI — generative AI, in particular — can be used to improve employee benefits. In this episode, we’ll explore how the technology is poised to make benefits more useful, more accessible and more empowering. We’re joined in this discussion by Dr. Ben Nguyen, Lead Product Manager at Transcarent.
Ep. 1
Beyond Reproductive Health: Employee Benefits for Women
Workplace benefits regarding women’s health have typically centered around reproductive health. These benefits are highly valuable and extremely meaningful to women who are building their families. But women’s health encompasses much more. In this episode, we will redefine women’s health to consider an approach to benefits that includes the entire spectrum of women’s wellbeing. We’re joined by Shelly Lanning, co-founder and president of Visana Health.
