How NRG is Taking a Broader Approach to Employee Financial Well-Being

Summary What do you do for employees when you can't out-pay inflation? In this episode of Beyond the Paycheck, host Kelsey Willock Jones sits down with Gin Kirkland Kinney, Executive VP and Chief People Officer at NRG, to talk about building total rewards around the whole person at a 17,000-employee energy company. Gin shares why employees turn down roles that pay 5% more, how NRG reduces financial stress through a 401(k) participation campaign, preferred banking rates, and a hardship fund for employees in hurricane-prone areas, and how her team proves the ROI of benefits that never show up cleanly on a spreadsheet, taking eNPS, intent to stay, and attrition costs straight to the P&L leads and the CEO. A candid conversation for HR and total rewards leaders making the case for investing in people.Chapters 00:00 Welcome and introduction 03:10 First job and the first paycheck 04:05 Total rewards and the whole person 05:20 Mental wellbeing and hardship support 07:10 Paying employees to volunteer 09:05 Why financial health matters at work 11:05 Proving ROI the spreadsheet can't see 13:05 The wellbeing platform that fell flat 15:15 People conversations at CERAWeek 19:00 The comp shift HR isn't ready forTakeaways - People will turn down a role that pays 5% more when learning, culture, growth, and opportunity are in balance; total rewards is the entire employee experience, not just the paycheck. - Employees don't leave their lives behind at the door: health, family, financial pressure, and purpose all shape how NRG designs compensation and benefits. - When companies can't keep up with inflation, financial wellness programs like a 401(k) match campaign, preferred banking rates, and a hurricane hardship fund offer peace of mind and remove a daily stressor. - Listening through pulse surveys and responding with action moved NRG's eNPS and intent to stay, and those gains translate into real dollars through lower recruiting, training, and backfill costs. - The people organization tracks satisfaction and attrition KPIs inside its operating model and takes the results to P&L leads and the CEO, proving progress even where straight-line ROI doesn't exist.Connect with the Guest Gin Kirkland Kinney LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginkinney/ Company Website: https://www.nrg.comSponsor Aura Finance helps you simplify compensation and benefits planning by bringing everything into one streamlined platform. No more juggling spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or manual calculations—Aura gives you a single place to design, compare, and communicate total rewards packages with confidence.With AI-powered insights, it takes the guesswork and busywork out of comp decisions, helps you spot pay equity gaps early, and makes it easy to model scenarios that keep your teams engaged and your budgets on track.See a demo at https://www.aurafinance.com/