{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Build Your Benefits","title":"The Benefits Call That Kept Me Up at Night, with Michael Bodziner, Co-CHRO at Gensler","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1628,"description":"Summary \nOn this episode of Build Your Benefits, Aditi sits down with Michael Bodziner, Co-CHRO at Gensler, to explore what benefits leadership looks like when empathy drives the decision-making process. Michael shares how Gensler navigated one of the most debated benefits decisions of recent years — offering GLP-1s for weight loss — and what it took to get a cost-conscious executive committee to say yes. He also opens up about the tension between empathy and scale, and why some benefits decisions that feel like the right thing to do have to wait. In his closing remarks, he offers a simple but powerful framework for career success that cuts against the grain of today's hustle culture.\nChapters \n00:00 Michael's 40-year journey from summer intern to Co-CHRO at Gensler \n03:30 The co-leadership model: how two CHROs split the role without a rulebook \n06:00 The GLP-1 decision: cost, culture, and a committee \n10:00 What data couldn't tell them — and why gut instinct filled the gap \n13:00 Seeing the transformation: when results show up in the room \n16:00 Benefits communication: why you can't overcommunicate \n19:00 Life-cycle based outreach and what AI could unlock next \n21:30 What keeps a CHRO up at night: the one employee with a story you can't ignore \n24:00 What Michael wishes more people understood about benefits work \n26:30 Slow and steady: career advice from someone who's been at the same firm for 40 years\nTakeaways\nOffering GLP-1s for weight loss wasn't just a cost decision — it was a values decision, and framing it that way is what got it approved.\nWhen data doesn't exist yet, common sense, empathy, and gut instinct are legitimate decision-making tools for a benefits leader.\nThe hardest part of the job isn't saying yes — it's saying \"not this year\" to a benefit that matters deeply to a real person with a real story.\nOvercommunicating benefits isn't spam — people only pay attention to what feels relevant to their current life stage.\nRelationship-building isn't soft...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/uvnUID2Z7VmGyaG4MqwzVMXmfYRa-Q5MmuVcUoRn0bs/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kNGU4/MzAxZWRiNGVlZjNi/NGM0NDVmMDI0MDMw/Y2MyOS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}