Summary

How do you move employees from “using benefits” to feeling true ownership in the business? Keith Brown, Vice President of Total Rewards at Tractor Supply Company and a military veteran, shares practical ways to turn rewards into engagement, financial wellness, and better customer outcomes.

Keith explains why transparency and empathy start with his own money story, then gets specific on how TSC boosts awareness—by communicating to families, building year-round education moments, and partnering with vendors for onsite and 1:1 support. He details a five-for-one stock split designed to make ownership accessible—framing ESPP participation as “$9 per paycheck” to drive uptake—and how the TSCme app centralizes pay, benefits, and wellness in one place.

Looking ahead, Keith outlines the shift to choice-driven rewards, one-stop hubs, and AI agents that remove friction and multiply impact. He also offers a simple 30-day experiment leaders can run to kickstart financial wellness across their teams.

Key Timestamps

- [00:45 ] – Guest intro and money story: lessons from a cash-first family and the value of discipline

- [06:20 ] – Early job takeaways: tips, pay accuracy, and empathy for frontline workers

- [07:53 ] – Where comp/benefits break down: expectations, ranges, and benefits awareness

- [09:50 ] – Raising utilization: family-inclusive comms, vendor partners, and timely education

- [12:46 ] – Creating owners: five-for-one stock split and $9-per-paycheck ESPP engagement

- [15:04 ] – The next 1–2 years: choice-based rewards, single-entry hubs, and AI agents

- [18:52 ] – Measuring equity: the TSCme app, usage data, and third-party pay equity analysis

- [20:36 ] – A 30-day experiment: “give every dollar a purpose” to build lasting habits

Takeaways

- Involve families in benefits communications to increase awareness and real-world usage.

- Program education around moments (open enrollment, holidays, tax time) for repeated exposure.

- Lower barriers to ownership—use stock splits, discounts, and simple frames like “$9 per paycheck.”

- Centralize benefits in one hub; reduce logins and make access mobile-first for frontline teams.

- Offer choice-driven, modular rewards supported by AI and automated agents to keep admin light.

- Validate pay equity with independent analysis, leveraging operational usage data to target gaps.

- Run a 30-day “every dollar has a purpose” challenge to catalyze financial wellness and engagement.

Sponsor

AllVoices brings all your employee relations work together in one place. No more jumping between spreadsheets, emails, and legacy systems just one place to document and manage reports, cases, investigations, and performance conversations. It helps you run a more consistent process, takes busywork off your plate with AI, and makes it easier to spot trends early, so you can work proactively, not just put out fires.

See a demo at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.allvoices.co/