Structure as Care: Certara’s VP of Total Rewards on Designing Benefits for Working Parents

Show Notes

Summary

What if the real job of benefits is to remove stress—and create relief—when life happens?

Serena Filson, Vice President of Global Total Rewards and HR Operations at Certara, shares how she architects compensation, benefits, wellness, and HR tech to be both fair and deeply human.

With 25+ years in HR, including taking Certara public in 2020 and leading M&A integrations, Serena explains why structure is an expression of empathy: it enables equity, signals culture, and helps people navigate hard moments with confidence.

She opens up about her own parenting journey—from stepping out of corporate to consulting, to a pivotal missed-Halloween moment stuck overseas—and how modeling flexibility out loud changed how her team shows up.

Expect concrete strategies: upgrading parental leave in the U.S., adding global EAP with childcare concierge, treating “supplemental” benefits as standard, and evaluating programs market-by-market through real parent scenarios.

Serena closes with a practical challenge to leaders: build your “kitchen table” of diverse voices and design systems that truly care.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Guest intro: Serena’s remit at Certara and the architecture of HR

[02:52] – Designing for relief: structure as equity, process, and culture

[06:25] – Global lens: supporting employees through disasters and rapid change

[08:13] – Serena’s parenting journey and identity as a working mom

[11:08] – The missed-Halloween moment in China—and why openness matters

[13:02] – Modeling flexibility out loud to normalize being human at work

[14:33] – Upgrading benefits: parental leave, EAP concierge, and “supplemental” as standard

[27:49] – One piece of advice: build a diverse “kitchen table” for benefit design

Takeaways

- Design for worst-case moments to reduce stress—structure is empathy in action.

- Treat supplemental benefits (legal, pet, critical illness/accident) as standard to compete for talent.

- Elevate parental support: strengthen leave where state protections lag and add global EAP with childcare concierge.

- Evaluate benefits locally and annually for major markets; map scenarios for birth, adoption, and different caregiver paths.

- Model transparency: state needs (“I’m at a PT appointment”) and pair with clear commitments to outcomes.

- Build a diverse internal sounding board so programs reflect real lives—not assumptions.

Sponsor

Parenting at Work is brought to you by Juno — the modern financial safety net for working families. 

Juno helps employers offer affordable, impactful long-term financial coverage for children diagnosed with a severe illness or disability, giving parents peace of mind and flexibility when it matters most. 

You can learn more about how Juno is helping companies build family-first benefits that truly make a difference at ⁠junokids.com⁠.

What is Parenting at Work?

Work and family aren’t two separate lives—they’re one reality. Welcome to Parenting at Work, the podcast exploring the human side of business. Join us for a warm conversation with leaders redefining employee support. Each episode offers stories and strategies for building workplaces that care. This is serious coverage with serious heart.

This podcast is brought to you by Juno, the modern safety net for working families.

Learn more at junokids.com

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Serena Filson: [00:00:00] Fast forward a few years. You know, my parents, you know, my dad passed away. You know, the support, the support changed quite a bit. Um, I moved COVID hit and I, you know, I was forced to try to figure out how to do remote schooling while the kids were in the basement. And I started realizing like, it takes much more, much more of a village.

Ashley Spiess: Welcome to Parenting At Work, the podcast, exploring the real world intersection of family life and the workplace. I'm your host, Ashley Spiess. We're here to dive into real honest conversations with leaders and innovators who are redefining what it means to support families in the workplace. My hope is that these conversations leave you feeling inspired and equipped to build a more compassionate world at work.

Because let's face it, work and family aren't two separate lives. They're one integrated reality. Parenting at Work is brought to you by Juno, the modern financial safety net for working families.

I'm joined by Serena Filson. She is an HR executive with [00:01:00] over 25 years experience who has built her career, designing the financial and operational architecture of hr. Simply put her work as a key foundational layer to helping companies scale. As Vice President of Global's Total Rewards and HR operations at sarta, she leads global compensation, benefits, wellness, HR technology, and more.

Her career has been defined by transformation. She helped take Serara Public in its 2020 IPO has architected equity and benefit frameworks across global teams, and now leads HR diligence and integration through multiple mergers and acquisitions. Before serara, she led total awards functions at LifeScan Johnson and Johnson and Ashfield, and at her core, she delivers the message that strategic HR is not just about numbers, it's about designing systems that care.

She focuses on building structures that ensure fairness, reward, contribution, and create stability for employees navigating uncertain corporate change. And I think a lot about that when it comes to working parents [00:02:00] who feel the transitions constantly. So Serena, I'm really excited to dig in today. Welcome to Parenting at Work.

Serena Filson: Thanks, Ashley. That was a very lovely introduction. I appreciate that.

Ashley Spiess: You are so welcome. Well do. And I don't know what it's like in your household today, but my kids are in a no school November era and it feels like weekly. We don't have school for some reason. So my kids were just out of school yesterday, um, and Monday for teacher workdays and election days, and so.

I'm like, whe, when do we go to school? Because I have a third grader and a kindergartner and I need to be at school as a confer.

Serena Filson: Yes. We were off yesterday and apparently we have a half day on Friday that I also just learned about. So I am, I'm with you on any given day. Yeah. I'm not sure where she's supposed to be.

Ashley Spiess: Well, I, you know, I wanna say like this podcast was born out of the realization that we need more honest, honest conversations about what it really looks like to parent while working. And again, I'm sure you can relate, um, and how employers can build environments where people can show up as their whole selves.

So I'd love to start by digging [00:03:00] into, um, a bit of your professional background and this focus of architecture in people systems. So, um, you've built your career in one of the most intricate corners of hr. Um, the architecture of compensation equity benefits that are sustaining global organizations. Um, and your work touches every employee building systems that people may never see, but always feel so knowing that you design those systems that quietly shape people's daily experience at work, pay, security, wellbeing, when you think about employees you serve.

What's like the one feeling or experience you most want them to have through your work?

Serena Filson: I think the, the experience itself that I think anybody, myself included, would want to have is, you know, a favorable one. Um, but from an emotional perspective, you know, I think when I think about it, I, I, I want people to not feel stressed and to feel that.

Like that relief of whether that's the [00:04:00] relief of not experiencing some sort of obstacle that maybe they thought the system was going to, you know, put in front of them. Or, you know, you encourage, you encounter, um, a particular program or manager or just overall feeling of culture where you say, oh wow, like I didn't have to worry about that, or my manager was cool about that.

So I think the overall feeling that I'm looking to help people is, is relief and not have that added burden. To worry about things at work when you really need to be focusing on things that might impact your work. But you know, your family life is, you know, your personal life is is the most important one.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah. And when you think about, like, again, like architecture, 'cause it's almost like, you know, when you build a house and you've got like all of the, the beams and you know, and all of the, the studs and everything behind the walls, that, that makes the house, you know, strong enough to stand and thinking a lot again, how that like parallels to the work you do.

When you think about good structure and your experience in, in the companies that you've worked for and, and what you've accomplished, what do, in your opinion, what does good structure make [00:05:00] possible for people and for companies? I

Serena Filson: mean, I think good structure one enables equitable like equity. So fairness in application of whatever policy or program that you're putting in place.

I think structure helps alleviate structure implies process and hopefully it's a good one or a well designed one, but a process that is easy for people to navigate. Meaning, you know, if you have some sort of catastrophic event or you know, whatever unanticipated issue that you're not, you know, at the hospital.

Stressed out on the phone, you know, on hold for two hours. So I think structure also implies a process that is designed and makes sense when, when you're designing with empathy, you're understanding that people are not necessarily likely at their computer have, you know, you need, you kind of need to create the scenario of worst case and, and design around that.

So you're, you're mindful of that. And I think structure also. Also helps provide the, the foundations of a good culture. Meaning if there was no structure in [00:06:00] place around certain programs, whether it's disability or leaves or uh, a wellness program, usually people don't feel as though that's the focus of the organization or that it's kind of more haphazard.

So I think when you have structure in place, it implies, and it does take up a space in the culture itself. So people feel and get the general notion of, okay, wellness. Supporting our wellbeing individually as parents, um, is something that the organization supports and that support is felt, you know, vis-a-vis, um, you know, not, not only what people say, but you know what we do.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah. And to your point, you know, again, culturally, I mean, culture can make or break a company, so I, you know, I know that like the work that goes into, you know, the building these structural programs is, it makes a huge impact on how people show up to work every day. And I know Satara has had, you know, some great growth year over year, and I'm sure that part of the, the growth that the companies continue to see and the culture that you've built has been part of the work that you've done in terms of creating this structure and this support for people outside of [00:07:00] work too.

Serena Filson: It, it has, it has. Um, and we've had, lots of the world has, we've experienced a lot as workforce members, as the world continues to change and that, you know, there's been natural disasters where, you know, people have been in hurricane, you know, hurricane zones, typhoon zones, you know, we have employees in, I wanna say probably like 20 countries at this point.

So we constantly can't, you know, we can't really rest on our laurels or get complacent. We're constantly. Trying to either one, think proactively around what else could help or what else could occur and are we prepared for it. And then in some cases we are reactive and when we react we try to, you know, mobilize resources as quickly as we can to say, okay, you know, either we need to make a change, we need to mobilize, you know, local resources or create something that we didn't even know needed to exist until now.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah, it's incredible how much the pandemic changed. Course of how companies think about supporting employees. Um, and it's just, it's really interesting how much creativity and thought has gone into [00:08:00] employee retention, coming into what real support looks like. Um, now that we have so many parents working from home and there's remote work and it's kind of opened up the flood gates as far as, um, that needs to think about employee retention and competitiveness in the market.

Um, so I, I agree with you. It's just interesting how sometimes the worst of times can bring up the most creative opportunities to think about how we support people.

Speaker 3: Linda.

Ashley Spiess: Your work is all about creating order and complexity, um, which feels very parallel to what baby parents do every day. Um, I'm in the stage where I'm navigating third grade math and it is not for the thing of heart.

So, you know, when you think about how. How has your own life experience shaped the way that you think about structure, stability, and care in your work?

Serena Filson: That's a really good question. Um, and I appreciate it. 'cause I think, um, I'll tell a little journey very quick and, and maybe I'll accentuate some, some, some points.

I think, you know, when I, when I had my daughter, um, I was kind of rounding out. I think I was in j Johnson Johnson around year 10 or [00:09:00] 11. And I made the decision to be a stay at home mom. So, you know, I left j and j, which was a great company, and we had all these wonderful programs and whatnot, so it wasn't for lack of, you know, feeling supported on that end.

It was just a decision that my partner and I made. You know, he, he was running a company, so we had said, you know, I have the fortunate ability to stay home, so let's do that. Shortly thereafter, I went back to consulting, which brought a lot of different muscles, um, to the way that I approach some of the roles since then and, and my philosophy now.

Um, in that I really loved, I really loved feeling like I was still a career gal. Like that was very important to me as a mom. It was part of my identity. When I was a stay at home mom, I felt like I lost that, so I knew I needed both, and I realized consulting gave me both of those opportunities, but also made me say not many people might have the luxuries that I have and designing a very part-time consulting role.

Not everybody can do that. So can you create micro [00:10:00] experiences or some sort of framework within a big corporate America on a full-time basis to get people to experience those moments of flexibility? Kind of is what I would say kind of earlier in my career. Um, I was still probably very judgmental. Um, I did have a lot of family help.

My mom and my dad at the time, you know, helped when, when my daughter was very young, so I can't say that I. I probably wasn't as present as I probably should have been early in her career because I felt, hey, she's taken care of, she adores my family and I still 100% focused on my, on my job. So I felt I was doing both, but in reality I really wasn't.

Um, you know, fast forward a few years, you know, my parents, you know, my dad passed away, you know, the support, the support changed quite a bit. Um, I moved COVID hit and I, you know, I was forced to try to figure out how does you. Remote schooling while the kids were in the basement. And I started realizing like it takes much more, much [00:11:00] more of a village.

Um, and I think one of the turning points, I don't know why it was this, but I was in China one year right before, right as COVID was actually hitting, I was getting out of China when COVID was shutting, when, when China was shutting. But it was a very, we were, my daughter was going to a very big Halloween party.

She was very passionate about her Halloween costume that year. It was gonna be a big deal and I was getting home. On like midnight eastern of like October 30th. So I was like, I am gonna be there for Halloween. Well, China did not go as planned and I got stuck in China, um, and had to mobilize re like I was calling neighbors and her friends' parents mobilizing resources to make sure she could be picked up and whatnot.

And I missed Halloween. And I don't think I lived that down for, I'm still probably not living it down, right? So I just realized, one, you need to start talking about this and realize like, if I experience this and I've never heard anybody else be in the same situation, most likely somebody else is experiencing this on a daily basis, but no one's talking [00:12:00] about it.

So I think those types of examples have, that really did shape me like I was thrown for a loop because I really did let her down and I was, and I, and I realized I was still approaching work in a very. Compartmentalized way after. Um, so I started with Phora and I had said, I'm just gonna try something super different.

I always run my teams. I never believe where you met, where you work matters. Like do what you need to do, you'll get your job done. Um, but rather than be nebulous or kind of hide like, oh, hey, I have to take my daughter to a doctor's appointment. I would say, I need to reschedule our meeting. And I would never really elaborate on all the chaos that was going on behind the scenes around why.

So I had said, I'm gonna try something different and I'm just gonna be totally honest so I can start modeling the behavior that I want the team to see. Mm-hmm. So they can feel comfortable saying, oh, I have something too. Um, and then if we can replicate that at scale within the organization, meaning for every one [00:13:00] person it's like whisper down the lane for every one behavior that's modeled, then everybody starts modeling it.

You can reaffirm that at the, you know, at your company or business unit level. Um, the better off we are. So now I, you know, I tell, I tell I lead with the team that your, you know, your family, whatever you choose or your personal life is, you know, that's part, this is, that is your identity. Your work is one, is really, one piece is really one piece of it, right?

So you don't feel like you have to hide. So if I have to reschedule meetings now, or if, you know, I, I just didn't yesterday, I said I'm not back from my daughter's physical therapy appointment. I need to shift something back. It's crazy how late they run. So just really just being human, which is kind of funny that we have to do that in corporate America at times, but I find it really has helped, does help.

And I think my team, I mean my team, my team gives me feedback all the time, but they, they go above and beyond. And I think it's because, not necessarily because we weave in the flexibility, but [00:14:00] it's because I, I recognize we're all just people showing up at the table versus looking at them as. You know, numbers or just what they produce.

It's kind of like, Hey, let's make sure we're all having a, a good time in life and trying to, you know, be as best as the best people that we can and do a good job at work at the same time.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah, and it sounds like, you know, it's funny that those experiences as parents can so immensely shape. Evolve our professional presence and our career.

And it sounds like that was a really, like in big inflection point for you, a simple holiday was like what really helped you think, you know, even bigger and, and more deeply about the experience that people were having, navigating being a parent and at a, and a professional at the same time?

Serena Filson: Absolutely.

Yeah. And, and, and what a sup and how much support you need and that support. Can take the form of people. But also thinking about my role, I realized, you know, what habit we've been looking at in terms of [00:15:00] programs or are we not being, were we not being as generous as we could because we were worried perhaps about a number or the financials versus that.

Sometimes intangible and tangible value of engagement or you know, somebody else going above and beyond or not being stressed. So we definitely did and have implemented quite a bit. From an overall wellness perspective, our leave, our parental policies, we, we've definitely ramped them up over, over the past number of years.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah, and I wanna talk more about that, but first off, I wanna give you the, the. The, the parent, um, get outta jail free card because I know I've been in your shoes and know like how moments like that can stick. I was in a very similar position. I was trying to build my career. I joined a startup when my daughter was two months old.

Everyone thought I was crazy 'cause I was so excited to go build something, but also was navigating being a new parent. But I remember I have a very similar story. When my daughter's first day of kindergarten, I was in San Diego for a conference. I live in Northern Virginia, so all the way across the country.[00:16:00]

And I was like, gosh darn it, I'm gonna get on a plane and I'm gonna make it home in time for her first day of kindergarten. 'cause there is no way I'm missing that. And I must have scared every single person because I got off that plane so fast. Ran home and I think I made it with like, just in time to wake her up and like get her dressed for her birthday and 'cause just again, like to your point, like setting that example of, of what matters and what's most important, and even though you weren't able to get there, I, I'm sure, I'm sure that you have been an amazing parent in so many other ways, and so give yourself that, get outta jail free.

Serena Filson: I appreciate that. Yes. I try to, I'm, I'm present when it matters now. Absolutely.

Ashley Spiess: That's amazing. And so when you think about, you were talking about the idea of now how you're thinking about evaluating benefits and like, you know, not just like looking beyond like the cost or some of the more logistical details now, you know, as you've continued to shape your perspective as both a, you know, um.

A leader in the HR space and also a parent. How do you think about, like how do [00:17:00] you approach evaluating benefits and what are, what some of the, the focuses or initiatives you've done at Serta or even in your previous professional career that can help other HR leaders think about like the importance of what should be really going into evaluating benefits and the thought process behind it?

Serena Filson: Yeah, I mean, I think it's, um, it's simple, but it's also complicated. I think, you know, generally, um. Let me, let me, let me caveat it.

Ashley Spiess: Mm-hmm.

Serena Filson: You know, global benefits is a, each country is, is a different beast. Um, so it has to really be assessed, you know, you can certainly kind of have a general global strategy, meaning we, we value health and wellness holistically.

Um, but how that really like lives and breathes on a daily basis is gonna be very specific to each country. Culture and the typical benefit practices. I would say as a, as a best practice standard from a role perspective, you know, you're, you're gonna wanna be, you know, evaluate your benefits typically annually, I would say for, you know, those critical mass countries where you have, you know, substantial [00:18:00] populations and then some of the smaller ones you can probably forego for every, you know, perhaps two or three years depending on kind of again, what markets you're operating in.

Um, you know, I think you need to look at, you know, core. I always, I always just kind of, my brain works differently, right? I look at kind of core health and welfare to make sure that our people is there core coverage and care in place if individuals need it from like a medical and a catastrophic basis.

If the answer is no, then you know you have work to do on your basic, like, you know, accidental death, dismemberment, all like all those non pleasant things. They need to be in place even though hopefully they're never invoked. That I would say more now, um, you know, all the supplemental benefits they used to be nice to have, or lifestyle benefits, now they're becoming part and parcel.

Like they're, they're part of your standard package and even down to pet insurance, like pets are people, fur babies too. So I think, you know, you, you basically have to in, in order to attract and retain, you [00:19:00] know, good talent and top talent in the markets. All of those prior supplemental benefits, like you really, you really kind of need to be offering them, um, again, for our profile.

Like we feel very comfortable in offering a host of supplemental benefits and all that good stuff. We added, you know, we did add I think pet insurance. We added legal insurance, we added some, you know, care coverage. We added, uh, critical illness, critical accident insurance. Which we did get a lot of feedback from, from parents.

I don't know if it just happened to be because they were parents.

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

Serena Filson: But myself included, my daughter's hobby or sport of choice is equestrian. So the thought of her, you know, falling off and, and, and, you know, some of her friends had been thrown from forces. So when we actually implemented our critical exit insurance, I was like, oh, I'm the first person that's gonna sign up for that one.

Um, and we do that process for each of our countries. Um, and then from a wellness perspective, we also, I mean, I consider leaves, well, leaves are [00:20:00] probably outside of wellness, but we, we implemented, um, a parental leave policy. Um, we focused on the US for, for that particular instance because most many countries outside the US have robust protections via the government.

Whereas the US we seem a little bit more harsh in that regard. So we, we beefed up our US parental leave policy, um, and guidance. And then we've also implemented like our global EAP. So that transcends every country. It's, you know, 365, 24 7, and provides a host of, um, you know, EAP support. But for parents as well.

There's concierge services weaved into that. So if you need help selecting a childcare coverage in your local area, and you just simply don't have the time, you can technically call in and they can assist in pointing, pointing you, um, and or refining some resources for, for folks. Um, so I mean, that was a longwinded answer, but I think the, the assessment [00:21:00] itself is, you know, methodical.

Most total rewards professionals probably have their own way of going about it, but I think you need to think creatively. Meaning are, do we know what it looks like for. A working mother, you know, physically giving birth, like kind of walk through everything, all the scenarios. What does it look like for, um, a working father?

How does that, how does that differ? Um, what about adoptive parents, you know, what would that experience look like? And making sure that the, those kind of personal life journeys that you have, coverage or programs that support those, those processes end to end.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah, and I mean, just. In a nutshell, I mean, the way that you know, you've led the initiative sata, I mean, what you're telling your employees is that, and how you're thinking about it is that benefits are not just.

Financial instruments, like their expressions of empathy, like, and you know, and you know, and it's that aha moment or that, okay, what's the purpose? What's the intent? Um, it's no longer the happy hours on [00:22:00] Fridays or the free lunches. I mean, it's about, to your point, like what happens if. My child falls off the swing set.

Like, and you know, I'm, I'm out of work for two weeks. 'cause they're in the hospital or they have an equestrian accident. Or to your point, if there's a natural disaster, family's lives are changed every day and it's already hard enough being a parent. So thinking about how your, your professional, you know, employer can think about, like what are ways to, to show empathy that these individuals are human, they're employees, they have daily lives in and outside of work.

And how do we show that we support them? I mean, that just has massive positive implications on a company and just its overall performance.

Serena Filson: I find it does. And you don't get, I find rarely, and I usually use it as a good indicator, meaning, you know, when benefits are working well, nobody says thank you so much.

Like, thank you so much for my claim going through today at CVS. Um, usually you might hear of some issues, right? But it's really nice. When you get feedback, which we have, it's very limited because again, you hope certain [00:23:00] catastrophic, very unique situations don't happen, right? Because it tests, you know, it tests the limits of personal and professional boundaries.

But, um, we have gotten feedback when someone has said like, listen, my son or daughter has gone through some sort of extensive recovery process and I just wanted to share with you, you know, the X program that you guys had in place. Like, it really helped me just navigate seamlessly or, you know, thank you for the parental leave.

So we have received feedback and whenever I get those nuggets, I make sure I. I pass them along or we kind of try to publicize it or share the feedback to let people know that, hey, even though you know you might not need these benefits on a daily basis, know that they're here and when they are invoked, they seem to be, they seem to obviously well be well received and, and having the impact that we want them.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah. And I'd love to just go back to a little bit where you talked about like setting an example, which I think is a huge part of, um, of a value add in leadership and how people lead today by saying [00:24:00] like, my daughter has a doctor's appointment, we're going to have to reschedule. Or to your point, I have kids home today, so many parents in.

Especially demanding or traditional work environments. And there's a huge, you know, kind of complex about that. Like with all of the return to work orders carry this quiet fear that if they're too open or they talk about what's happening at home, um, it might make them seem distracted, less ambitious, or too much.

Um, and so it sounds like that you've, you know, you're trying to, you know, correct that narrative by be setting an example yourself. And by being open and honest. How do you think leaders can start to change that narrative? So that being, you know, transparent about family life isn't seen as a weakness. Um, in addition to talking more about like yourself and your balance as a parent, is there anything else that you recommend that people in leadership roles consider to help change that narrative?

Serena Filson: Um, I mean, I think, you know, I would always struggle to say not something specific, but I, I believe that. Culture change culture. You know, culture is built, obviously [00:25:00] you have values that guide the behaviors, but it's really built from the ground up in terms of, you know, those individual level conversations, the moments that matter, you know, the role modeling.

I mean, I would say from a senior leadership perspective, because we do it right, if we have our CEO or our business unit presidents, um, we weave reminders into town halls around, you know, hey, you know, we have all these great programs, the wellness. So I would say, you know, you certainly don't want to not have messaging around reminders of wellness that we value the holistic.

We know that you're stru, you know, struggling, or we all have work and family. So kind of like making a general, general statement versus, you know, Hey Jane, like we really love that you have doctor's appointments. Right. But I also think it's helping employees, you know, and HR business partners are great resources that for this too.

I think people, to your point, they might worry about the perception, but I think it's also about how you. Articulate it. [00:26:00] Um, from my perspective, like my team, like when they kind of say, Hey, I have to do something, they might seem to be asking, but I said, you don't really need to ask. Like, you're kind of just telling me what you need to do, and I'm saying, yes, this is totally fine.

So I would say leaders can do, um, can help their teams and we can help employees figure out what that contracting like, how you're positioning it as, because it's not like, can I drop off? It's more I need to drop off. Here's kind of what I need to go do and here's what I'm gonna commit to when I get back to the office.

So it's kind of like, thank you, I'm still being productive. Gotta step out for a moment. I'm just sharing that with you and then also bringing it back to, but here's what I'm gonna do. 'cause business leaders are still business leaders, so everybody wants, you know, everybody in their mind still wants that comfort.

Like, again, making sure that you're getting what you need to done, but how you get that done really doesn't need to be micromanaged. So I would say helping employees navigate those conversations [00:27:00] and, and be a little bit more confident. It, but also, again, bringing it back to the business, meaning there's always that mutual employment relationship where it's not, you know, it can't be kind of a free for all where there's that confidence that the leader's like, okay, they're gonna reengage after they do what they need to do.

Ashley Spiess: Yeah. So I guess I'll end, I'll end with one last question. If you could offer one piece of advice to people or benefit leaders, again, you're a 25 plus year hr, you know, veteran in this space. If you could offer one piece of advice to those listening right now, what's the one thing you'd want them to remember about building systems that truly support working parents?

Serena Filson: I would say you need to talk to a lot, talk to a lot of people, and don't assume the way that you're thinking is the way that your population thinks and that what means, what matters to you, that you're representative of the population. Whenever we have changes or we're thinking through things, you know, I have my, my go-to.

Kitchen table of, you know, [00:28:00] leaders at certain levels. Some are parents, some are not parents, no dog parents. Selecting a very diverse cross section of people that can help be your table and your sounding board to make sure you have a very diverse, uh, a number of perspectives represented in the programs that you bring.

Ashley Spiess: And that's, you know, very thoughtful advice and, and powerful advice. I mean, it just goes back to just something so simple as opening up your ears and just listening to your point and just asking the questions. Serena, thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you so much for your dedication, for your candor, and for being a human so dedicated to bringing forth impactful change to others.

Serena Filson: Thank you for having me, Ashley. It's been an absolute pleasure. I appreciate it.

Ashley Spiess: Oh my gosh, my pleasure is all mine. And my biggest takeaway from my conversation with Serena is that structure and empathy are not opposites. They're partners. When we design systems with both precision and compassion, we create workplaces where stability becomes a form of care and [00:29:00] thriving is possible.

Um, so supporting working parents is not just about special programs, it's about designing a foundation strong enough to hold everyone, uh, especially when it matters most. Um, so for every people leader listening right now, I hope this conversation leaves you with one question. What would it look like if your systems were architected to not only be effective, but also compassionate?

And for every parent listening, remember, one voice can bring forth change. Whether you join an ERG, schedule a meeting with your HR leader, join a group hosted by a benefits leader, uh, or share what can better support you as a working parent in a company survey. One voice can spark the conversation and one voice can spark the change.

So thank you so much for joining us today.

Serena Filson: Thanks again.

Ashley Spiess: Thanks for joining us on Parenting at Work. If you enjoyed this conversation, please make sure to follow Parenting at Work wherever you get your podcasts. And if this story resonated with you, the single most impactful thing you can do is share it with one other person, a fellow HR leader, [00:30:00] a manager, or anyone who believes in building workplaces that care.

Parenting at Work is brought to you by Juno, the modern financial safety net for working families. Juno helps employers offer affordable. Impactful long-term financial coverage for children diagnosed with a new, severe illness or disability, giving parents peace of mind and flexibility when it matters most.

Because as my 8-year-old daughter can vouch,

Speaker 3: because when families are supported, workplaces are stronger.

Ashley Spiess: You can learn more about how Juno is helping companies build family first [e-mail]. I'm Ashley. Thanks for listening. And now let's get back to work.