Empyrean Releases Full Agenda for EVOLVE\23

Connecting Benefits, Enriching Lives

Empyrean has released its full conference agenda and speaker lineup for EVOLVE\23, which will feature some of the industry’s top thought leaders and HR and benefits experts.

DATE: April 12-14, 2023

LOCATION: The Hyatt Regency Savannah

The theme for this year’s event is “Connecting Benefits, Enriching Lives”, which is also Empyrean’s corporate mission. Thought leadership content covered during the conference will explore the connection between people experience, benefits, and positive HR and organizational outcomes.

The event will feature two dynamic, high-energy keynotes as well as several expert panels. These sessions are designed to provide the strategies and tools needed to effectively lead the charge in using benefits to improve and ensure employee trust, psychological safety, and physical wellness – all of which lead to happy, energized teams and successful organizations.

Conference speakers will also provide actionable insights and strategies that will empower attendees to create personalized, connected, life-enriching benefits experiences that address the needs of the individual while also addressing populations with economic efficiency.

Platinum event sponsors Securian and LifeLock will also share critical information about how to improve people experience through benefits.

Conference Keynotes: EVOLVE\23


Opening Keynote: From Populations to People – Creating Remarkable Experiences One Individual at a Time 

Joey Coleman
Customer & Employee Engagement Expert

The opening keynote will be delivered by Joey Coleman, an employee engagement and customer experience expert who has worked with organizations like Whirlpool, NASA, Volkswagen Australia, and Zappos to design and implement their internal and external brand experiences.

Content covered will include:  

  • Why your employees are your most important customers.
  • How to improve employee experiences to reduce churn and increase engagement. 
  • Delivering personalized interactions at scale.
  • The three elements of long-term employee engagement.  
  • Becoming a more strategic organizational contributor by focusing on people experience and engagement.

Closing Keynote: The Power of a People-First Approach: Aligning HR, Benefit, and Organizational Success 

Mark Stelzner
Founder / Managing Principal at IA HR

While the insights shared at EVOLVE\23 will help attendees better leverage benefit programs for organizational success, it is critical for benefit and HR leaders to understand how to communicate this value up to the C-Suite.

As the role of strategic HR and benefits leaders continues to evolve, so do the demands on those in these positions. HR and benefit leaders are not only responsible for ensuring that their people understand how to choose and use their benefits, but that they also recognize the importance of these programs and how they support every individual’s total health and wellbeing – at work and in life.

This session will examine how HR leaders can survive and thrive during times of unprecedented change, all while continuing to provide essential physical, mental, and emotional support for their people. It will also dive into the many ways that this support advances every aspect of their organizational success, leveraging outcomes that speak to leadership and the C-Suite. 

Expert Panels


Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Through Financial Wellness Strategies 

Across the US, people are feeling financially insecure. Whether they’re having difficulty saving, paying off debt, planning for future expenses, or simply managing the cost of everyday life – financial wellness plays a huge role in the mental, emotional, and even physical well-being of today’s workforce.  

A recent survey conducted by PwC found that 56% of employees are stressed about their finances, 49% of which said that money concerns have had a major impact on their mental health in the past year. Financial instability causes widespread uncertainty, and financially strained employees are twice as likely to look for employment elsewhere.

As organizations look to provide resources, programs, and aid for their employees, it is critical to recognize that traditional financial wellness programs are not always inclusive, and may not properly support employees across different backgrounds, incomes, and geographies.  

This session will cover:  

  • An exploration of the growing scope of financial wellness programs, including student loan, home buyer, and caregiver assistance.  
  • Programs and educational resources valuable to employees throughout varying life stages.  
  • How to better support under-represented populations.  
  • Empowering low-wage workers with tools that meet them where they are. 
  • Tax-advantaged accounts and programs.   
  • Promoting financial wellness programs to help candidates and employees understand how to leverage them to their benefit.  

Lifestyles + Life Stages: Optimizing Benefits Value by Meeting Your People Where They Are  

Each member of any given workforce approaches their health, wellness, and financial planning goals differently, depending on what matters to them at that moment. Throughout any employee population, there are also different styles and preferences tied to communication, especially for those working outside of a traditional office environment.  

This session will take a deep dive into how HR and benefit teams can help their team members see the value of their benefits at their unique life stage – whether they are just entering the workforce, expanding their family, or approaching retirement – through targeted, meaningful employee communication and education.  

This session will cover: 

  • Strategies to better understand employee populations, including what they value, how they prefer to communicate, and how and when they absorb information.  
  • Why benefits personalization matters, and the science behind engagement with individualized messages and prompts.  
  • How to position benefits by life stage, including how a particular benefit could have different advantages depending on the age of the participant.  
  • Strategies to promote benefits to ensure everyone at every life stage understands how to enroll in and use the best benefits available to them.  
  • Communication preferences across the generations and how to flex to each style. 
  • How to improve benefits education and fluency across your populations.  
  • Reaching “deskless” and frontline workers in non-traditional office environments.  
  • How benefits personalization can support a DEIB strategy.   

Creating Connected People & Benefit Experiences Across a Dispersed Workforce: A Client Case Study with NexTier  

Learn how NexTier Oilfield Solutions was able to significantly improve their people engagement and retention rates across their dispersed, deskless workforce by using personalized benefits and communication experiences.

The Future is Now: How Empyrean’s Vision Aligns with the Future of Benefits  

During this session, Empyrean’s Chief Strategy Officer, Jim Priebe, and Chief Information & Technology Officer, Kelly Clark, will share Empyrean’s go forward vision as we advance our mission to connect benefits and enrich lives.

Throughout the discussion, Jim and Kelly will talk through the various macro and micro factors influencing the space, including areas where Empyrean will make a concentrated investment in using our technology, security, infrastructure, and services to solve for the evolving challenges impacting Empyrean’s clients.

*Wagmo Pet Insurance is also a Bronze sponsor of EVOLVE\23.

Please contact our events team for more information about this invitation-only conference.