Modernizing Benefits at a Mature Organization to Appeal to Today’s Changing Workforce

BY Matthew Koehler | February 19, 2025

Employee retention and engagement are one side of the human capital coin. The other, perhaps, is the total rewards package. Most people think of total rewards in terms of pay and health benefits, but it's far more than that. 

“Total rewards encompasses all forms of compensation and benefits needed to attract, motivate, and retain our employees,” said Fannie Mae’s VP of total rewards, Brian Copeland. Copeland discussed the evolution of total rewards during a fireside chat with Denver Post reporter Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton at a From Day One’s January virtual conference.

A Total Approach to Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction isn’t one-size-fits-all, says Copeland. So total rewards must be tailored to each employee’s unique needs. “It’s for us in our overall leadership team to try to figure out ways to better understand what those inputs are to an employee's job satisfaction,” he said.

He puts total rewards into four “buckets”: 

  1. Career advancement – A clear talent architecture that outlines career paths, including vertical promotions and lateral opportunities.
  2. Compensation and benefits – innovative total rewards designed to support employees’ diverse needs at every career stage.
  3. Learning and development and cross training programs – tools like training, certifications, and tuition reimbursement to help employees own their career growth. 
  4. Culture and psychological safety – continuous feedback and engagement efforts to ensure employees feel supported and heard.

Tapping into that second bucket, and to a greater extent what Fannie Mae’s mission is, the company also tries to make housing affordable for their employees. “One of our long standing benefits that we've offered is our employee assisted housing. So it's directly tied to our mission, which is making sure that we provide sustainable access to home ownership.” To this extent, they offer a one-time stipend to employees buying a new primary residence. 

Aside from that, given that home ownership is a complex process, especially for new homeowners, they provide education on how to buy a home and what it’s like to own one. Copeland says these types of benefits have been around a long time.

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton of the Denver Post interviewed Brian Copeland of Fannie Mae, discussing the companies innovative total rewards 

On the more innovative end, they’re working on a pilot energy efficiency program where, working with vendors or local energy companies, they do a scan of an employee’s current home. “The energy efficiency audit will go through, and they'll look at somebody’s home and see –maybe they need new insulation. Maybe it’s Windows. Maybe the inverse of the availability for solar panels or energy efficient appliances, whatever it may be, and they go through and get kind of a scorecard on how efficient their home is.” He says employees can apply that one-time stipend to update or upgrade their homes.

Fannie Mae also expanded its benefits to support employees’ mental health and well-being by introducing enhanced leave programs, including parental and grandparent leave. Furthermore, they’ve launched a lifestyle spending account, an after-tax benefit that employees can use for personal needs like pet insurance, home office supplies, or hobbies. “We really created it to try to meet the ancillary benefits that are more one-off,” Copeland said. 

“[We were] trying to be creative and different to make sure our employees [are] able to say, 'Hey, I'm working with Fannie Mae. I love Fannie Mae, and it supports me and who I am inside and outside of work.’”

Managing Cost Constraints With Total Rewards

Rising healthcare costs, especially increased use of GLP-1 medications, have led Fannie Mae to refine its benefits strategy in that area. “We still wanted to provide access, but we wanted to be very thoughtful." Copeland says they balance availability with preventative care like lifestyle programs to help control costs. Given the constant flux of costs in healthcare, they review their offerings every six months and work with providers to find cost-effective solutions. 

Attracting digital talent has also raised costs as inflation drives up salaries. “We've had to pay tech talent right to get them in the door to make sure we're competitive.”

Lastly, Copeland points to two seemingly “small” areas of cost constraints that “add up quickly”: regulatory compliance and evolving employee expectations. New laws create administrative costs, while demand for personalized benefits like loan repayment and mental health support requires multiple vendors. “If we're going to offer that, usually we have to go out to a new vendor. There's very few vendors that may offer a one stop shop,” which increases overall costs. 

“We found ways to mitigate some, but some are just going to be something we’ve got to focus on over the next couple years.” As their current generation of employees nears retirement, Fannie Mae expects to introduce even more tailored benefits.

On that retirement piece, Copeland says there isn’t a perfect solution but they take a holistic approach. They auto-enroll their employees in a 401(k) that has a generous employer match, even for employees who don’t contribute. “We spend a lot of time on financial literacy...providing them education on savings investing through webinars and workshops.” Fannie Mae also offers one-on-one coaching.

Beyond retirement, Fannie Mae focuses on overall financial well-being, providing tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment, and guidance for parents planning for college costs. “I don’t know if that’s fully innovative, but I think it’s something that we can control. And, that’s bringing awareness and options for our employees.”

Looking towards the future, Copeland says the industry will start seeing “more personalized benefit options.” “We're probably going to start moving towards more individual total rewards programs, almost like a menu style where you can select what you need for yourself.”

He sees AI and new technology options accelerating personalized benefit programs. For healthcare options, for example, in network doctors might be going the concierge route, “focused on more of [a] holistic medicine.”

Ultimately, Copeland believes the total rewards space is on the verge of an evolution. “I think we're on the verge of a lot of advancement in the total reward space, given some of the technology changes that are probably coming over the next decade.”

Matthew Koehler is a freelance journalist and licensed real-estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Greater Greater Washington, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.

(Photo by AaronAmat/iStock)

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