Workplace MVP LIVE from SHRM 2021: Sally Pace, The Granite List

Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting live from the SHRM 2021 Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in workplace behavioral health, crisis, and security solutions. Now, here’s your host.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:22] Hey, everyone. Jamie Gassmann here, your host of Workplace MVP. And we are broadcasting from SHRM 2021 here in Las Vegas, Nevada. And with me today, I have Sally Pace, who is the founder of The Granite List. Welcome to the show, Sally.

Sally Pace: [00:00:38] Thanks, Jamie. I’m thrilled to be here.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:40] So, let’s start out with you giving us a little background about yourself and how you kind of became the founder of The Granite List. So, tell us your story.

Sally Pace: [00:00:47] Well, thank you. So, our company is Connect Healthcare Collaboration. We’ve been around for seven years. And we’ve built a reputation really working with innovative healthcare solutions, primarily on the medical plan side, helping them build their marketing and sales strategy. And as we were connecting both vendors and brokers and employers, we saw that there was an opportunity in the marketplace. And, really, 2020, 2021, confirmed and sped up the need for what we have built, called The Granite List.

Sally Pace: [00:01:26] So, you think about how you make purchasing decisions in so many areas of your life. You want to go to a restaurant, you go to OpenTable, look at the menu, you see what’s available for reservations. You want to stay at a hotel, you go to TripAdvisor, you read reviews, you see what people have to say and what their experience was like. But we saw that when it came to H.R. and the benefits arena, there was nothing like that. If you wanted to learn about something, you either had to ask a friend of a friend who knew the knew the salesperson there, or Google on one company at a time.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:57] Yeah. So, there are no resources out there, really, collectively gathering all of the potential vendors or potential support, you know, access that they might have. Brilliant.

Sally Pace: [00:02:08] Well, thank you.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:02:08] Yeah. So, talk to us a little bit about what are some of the common things, you know, kind of some of the common support kind of topics or categories that H.R. leaders can find through The Granite List?

Sally Pace: [00:02:19] Absolutely. Well, I think no one will be surprised that virtual is king right now. And we’ve seen such a shift, let’s say, perhaps an onsite clinic is now switching to or enhancing their offerings with more virtual telehealth/telemedicine services. Certainly, I think we all are aware that lots of people – I might be one of them – that went out and bought a COVID puppy. And so, pet insurance has gone through the roof.

Sally Pace: [00:02:49] So, benefits have really shifted from a lot of these wholesale plans to sort of the here and now. What are people doing right now and how can we meet them where they are? And so, the searches that happen on The Granite List are following suit. Lots of mental wellbeing, lots of physical wellbeing as it relates to the individual, and then, certainly, lots of virtual care services.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:14] Yeah. Wonderful. And a lot of with some of the H.R. leaders, you know, a lot of the times when they’re looking for something, sometimes it’s in response to something.

Sally Pace: [00:03:24] Absolutely. And that’s where we complement what we have happening around us right now. Right now, this is a time and place where you are getting to meet these solutions. But what we do is, we help reconnect people at point of interest. So, somebody may have just had a July 1 open enrollment and they’re not necessarily looking for, let’s say, a new telehealth provider or a new TPA. But when they are looking, we want to make sure that they have every resource available at their fingertips. As we say, point of interest, point of search.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:59] Right. That way if there’s something that’s critically happening, they need support right now.

Sally Pace: [00:04:04] Exactly. Exactly.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:05] So, for some of the different topics, how are you keeping up on the trending? What are some of the other things that you’re seeing? I know mental health is a big one, and it’s been talked a lot about here at the SHRM Conference. What are some of the other things that you think will come up the pipe soon that you’re kind of working to build into The Granite List?

Sally Pace: [00:04:23] Well, certainly, the other side that we all know, DEI has gotten a lot of of deserved attention. And so, we have H.R. leaders coming to the site all the time saying, “I know I need to be doing something, but I don’t know what exactly.” And so, we are building a pipeline of solutions – well, we’re not building. We’re offering a platform for these solutions to share their success stories and share how they can help in the DEI and the talent acquisition.

Sally Pace: [00:04:54] And we know that McKinsey released a report talking about this high expected turnover of the workforce. And so, what will it look like if we remain virtual or hybrid and are seeking new talent? How can we help H.R. leaders meet those challenges and meet those needs? Because, you know, I think gone are the days where, by and large, you sit down in a room for an interview. It’s now going to be over the phone or over Zoom.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:25] Well, and a lot of things have changed with that whole work environment. I mean, I hired, the interview hired, and brought in and implemented a new employee, and I just met them for the first time in person about a month ago, which is crazy.

Sally Pace: [00:05:38] Right. You didn’t even have to brush your teeth for the interview.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:42] I know. It was on camera.

Sally Pace: [00:05:43] I’m not saying you didn’t. I’m just saying you didn’t have to.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:47] I might have considered it, but no. So, it’s really interesting, like, as the workforce evolves, the needs of those H.R. leaders changes. And if anything taught us, like, over the last year, their demand for content or demand for support is really in the now because of that ever changing.

Sally Pace: [00:06:07] A hundred percent.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:07] So, you know, for the individuals putting their information on your site, talk to me a little bit about how does that work?

Sally Pace: [00:06:13] Sure. So, think about we equate ourselves to, I would say, three or four different platforms that already exist and do a beautiful job in different verticals. If you think about how OpenTable has transformed how people find restaurants or LinkedIn, you have a LinkedIn profile. Our pages are similar to, I would call them, a LinkedIn on steroids marketing platform. Again, like how TripAdvisor, you can read reviews, you can leave reviews. We offer that capability on The Granite List. In fact, it’s one of the competitive advantages that you’re not going to get from somebody’s holistic website. How do you get deeper information than what you’re able to find on what somebody tells about themselves, we want other people to tell their stories, too.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:59] Yeah. And looking at that buying process, even that has changed. You know, so like from an H.R. leader, they’re burned out, they’re tired, their ability, their capacity to get any information is limited.

Sally Pace: [00:07:15] But they’re also overwhelmed. I mean, with staff shortages, what we hear time and again from two sides of the audience, from H.R. leaders, we hear we are inundated with vendors trying to sell themselves to us, and we can’t meet the needs of our people, and also stay on top of trends, or take every phone call that comes our way. Conversely, they rely on benefits advisors, brokers, B and C advisors. And they say the same thing. They’re expected to be at the forefront to always know about the next best thing that’s coming out.

Sally Pace: [00:07:48] And yet, especially when events were pulled out from under us in 2020, how did you learn about new solutions? You know, yes, there have been some successful virtual events, but by and large, those referrals, those learning about new things was happening live and in person. And so, as you said earlier, we all had to shift the way we make decisions. And, certainly, that has trickled down to how brokers stay on top of trends in the industry as well.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:08:15] Yeah. Absolutely. And from a broker perspective, do you feel like traffic coming into your page, is it more from a broker perspective or is it more that H.R. leader, or is it kind of a combination?

Sally Pace: [00:08:27] It’s a combination of both. And then, the other great thing that we’re seeing that we never expected is vendors finding channel partners or partner vendors on the site themselves. Lots of COVID necessity resources have popped up. And if you were serving an onsite clinic platform for, say, manufacturing plant, and all of a sudden you needed an influx of COVID supplies, where would you go? Well, The Granite List has allowed vendors to find one another in a way that has been really uplifting in a way that we never expected the site to take people.

Sally Pace: [00:09:03] By the way, we launched the site July 1st, and so we have over a thousand solutions already on the site, which has been another confirmation that we are meeting a need that wasn’t previously met in the market.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:09:18] Wonderful. It’s like a holistic community where it’s kind of like taking that virtual expo space into a different capacity for people.

Sally Pace: [00:09:26] Well, the spirit of community is really important to us. In fact, that’s part of the story behind the name. So, I’d love to tell that if that’s okay.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:09:37] Absolutely. Share with us.

Sally Pace: [00:09:38] We get asked all the time why The Granite List. And, first, the Granite Cutters’ Union was the first group in the United States to offer sick benefits to their members. Obviously, very gruesome work and a lot of need for sick benefits.

Sally Pace: [00:09:51] But what they had, and you wouldn’t – or at least, I wouldn’t – have thought about this when you think about a granite cutter, who they are at their core. They had a newsletter. It’s sort of the precursor to what we know is the modern day GoFundMe. And if you had a colleague that had a need beyond just sick benefits, you could submit their story to the newsletter. It would get published and distributed to the other granite cutters, and they could rally around their own to help meet the additional financial needs of that person or that family had. And so, we love that idea of community.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:10:25] Yeah. That’s fantastic. Great story. Interesting. And to know that that was the first to have, you know, real benefits for their people. If any of our listeners wanted to get a hold of you or to explore The Granite List opportunity, share with us how would they find you.

Sally Pace: [00:10:42] Sure. So, thegranitelist.com, www.thegranitelist.com. And when you come to the site, you will be asked to identify as one of three categories, an employer, a broker, or a vendor. And each of those different categories you’ll have a profile process. Again, much like you fill out a profile to have an OpenTable presence or TripAdvisor. You fill out a profile very short, five minutes, and then it allows you to experience the site from your lens.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:11:15] Wonderful. And if they wanted to reach out to you directly or would you rather they go through the website?

Sally Pace: [00:11:20] So, we have a very simple email address that gets funneled to us, hello@thegranitelist.com.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:11:29] Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Sally. It’s been great to have you on the show. And for those listening, we are broadcasting the podcast, Workplace MVP, from Booth 4076. That’s R3 Continuum, our sponsor’s booth. Stop by and visit us.