Friends with Benefits
Episodes
The One With Peter Varga: Why Global Benefits Admin Is Still Running on Spreadsheets
23 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Companies spend 10–30% of payroll on benefits. Most of them manage it in Excel.In this episode of Friends With Benefits, Carl and David sit down wit...
The One With Aatish from Ferring: Why 2 in 5 Employees Would Switch Jobs for Fertility Support
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Fertility benefits aren’t “nice to have” anymore — they’re becoming a retention strategy.Aatish Pattani, Senior Director and Global Head of ...
The One With Claire from WPP: Why “Jazzy” Benefits Don’t Work If People Don’t Know the Basics
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Benefits teams are under pressure — rising medical costs, mental health claims, disengaged employees, and finance teams demanding proof. Claire Read...
The Christmas Special: Reflections, Wishes, and the Future of Employee Benefits
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our festive episode reflecting on the first year of the Friends with Benefits podcast — plus Santa drops by with the world’s biggest benefit wishe...
The One With Josephina from British Airways: Why Financial Empowerment Beats Financial Wellbeing
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Josephina Smith, Reward and Recognition Director at British Airways, joins Carl and David to explore the shift from financial wellbeing to financial e...
The One With Tony from Aristocrat: What 40 Years in Reward Reveals About Employee Benefits
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when one of the earliest flexible-benefits pioneers looks at the industry today — and realises many of the same issues still haven’t ...
The One With Christina from Cohesity: How Benchmarking Broke Benefits (and Why Flexibility Can Fix Them)
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when benchmarking becomes a comfort blanket — and the industry forgets what flexibility really means? In this episode, Christina Alliak...
The One with Will from Halfords: Why Benefits Lost Their Way — and How to Get People to Care Again
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when employee benefits get too complicated, too noisy — and people stop caring?In this episode of Friends With Benefits, we sit down wi...
The One with Lee from Block (ex-Google): Inclusive Design, Why Benchmarks Aren’t Enough
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it really look like when you build benefits with inclusion, equity, and integrity from someone who’s worked in both Big Tech and policy?In...
The One with Benefits Leader Mark: Global Rollouts, AI Caution, Engagement
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Friends with Benefits, David sits down with global benefits leader Mark to break down the hard-earned lessons from rolling out bene...
The One with Steve from Autodoc: Radical Transparency, Reimagining Benefits from Scratch
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Carl and David are joined by Steve Bianchi ex-Unilever, now Chief People Officer at Autodoc. Steve brings hi...
The One with Joana from Eventbrite: Mental Health, Global Equity & Marketing Your Benefits
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Friends with Benefits, Carl and David sit down with Jo Viana, Director of Global Benefits at Eventbrite, to get real about what it ...
The One with John from Workday: Decluttering Benefits, Proving ROI, and the Truth About Data
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Benefits are bloated. Data is broken. ROI is murky. But people still need support that works.In this episode of Friends with Benefits, we're joined by...
Friends with Benefits: Episode 1 – The one where David and Carl started a podcast about employee benefits
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the very first episode of Friends with Benefits, Carl and David kick things off by diving into the tangled world of employee benefits and why it’...