The Benefit Nobody Expected: GoHealth's Eric Waggoner on Financial Well-Being, Pay Equity, and Why Custom Insoles Outperformed Every Prediction - Beyond the Paycheck

Topics in this episode

employee benefits Pay equity Total Rewards financial well-being healthcare HR

Episode notes

Summary How do you modernize total rewards for a 6,500-person frontline healthcare workforce - without losing the human touch? Eric Waggoner, Director of Total Rewards at GoHealth Urgent Care, shares how his team balances compliance, cost, and culture across 17 states and multiple health system joint ventures. With a career that began in sales redesigning commission plans, Eric brings a pragmatic lens to compensation, benefits, and financial well-being. He explains how AI can supplement - not replace - HR teams, from speeding compensation cycles with tools like Better Comp to deflecting benefits FAQs during open enrollment. Eric also details how he educates employees on the full value of total rewards, tailors financial well-being by generation, and measures success beyond claims data. Don’t miss his unexpected, high-impact benefit for frontline staff - 3D custom insoles - and his take on pay equity guardrails and the rising pressure of prescription drug costs. The episode closes with a 30-day money experiment any listener can try.