In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Gisela Carere, President of Benchmark Benefit Solutions Inc., shares a grounded perspective on how employee benefits have evolved from a cost centre into a strategic driver of retention, culture, and workforce well-being.
Interview By Maheen Bari
Gisela specializes in meeting the unique needs of executives and employees of public and private companies, associations, and not-for-profit groups. With over 29 years of steady and progressive industry experience proudly serving the needs of over 25,000 members, she has developed superior subject matter expertise in group benefits. Her passion for the industry has helped her hone her craft in various disciplines such as group underwriting, actuarial analysis, benefit plan design, sales, training, and sponsor/member communications. Gisela is a valued partner for organizations. Her insights, industry relationships, and strategies for containing benefit costs and introducing wellness initiatives contribute to healthier and stronger organizational teams.
Gisela’s insurance career started early at Mutual of Omaha, directly after graduating high school. She worked closely with the actuaries and underwriters, learning the nuances of the group employee benefits business. She quickly fell in love with the industry and decided to make it her full-time career while simultaneously pursuing her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto. Always looking for growth, she understood that to achieve true success in the benefits industry, she needed to continue her education in employee benefits management. At 23, she became the group underwriting department supervisor and continued her training by working for insurance companies and completing the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) program.
Benchmark is celebrating 20 years in 2026 and serving tens of thousands of members across Canada—how has the role of employee benefits and total rewards evolved over those two decades, especially for women in the workforce?
We’re so excited to be celebrating, not only because it is a testament to our longevity, but because it is such a tangible measurement of our impact. As we look back, we know we have helped employers and, in turn, employees, navigate life milestones and changes – especially women.
Benefits were once looked upon as a business expense, but over time, they have now become a valuable tool for employers to keep a pulse on their workforce’s health and needs. In labour markets that are constantly in flux, benefits can be a great way to prioritize retention. By looking at employee benefits and group retirement savings plans as tools that holistically take care of people, employers attain productivity and a competitive advantage in their respective industries.
You’ve built your career from underwriting and actuarial work to leading a national consulting firm—what personal experiences or turning points most shaped your perspective on what “supportive” benefits for women and caregivers actually look like in practice?
What’s shaped my perspective most is the commitment to continuously listening and learning.
Coming from underwriting and actuarial work, I was trained to look at quantitative data. And that data is important; it tells one part of the story. But I realized it’s only part of it. The turning point was understanding that the narrative (the qualitative side) brings a synergy you can’t get from the numbers alone. You can’t build truly supportive benefits for women and caregivers if you’re only looking at spreadsheets.
Listening to clients, keeping tabs on legislative changes and identifying gaps in private practice showed me that we all have different health and financial realities. No two people are the same. Supportive benefits can’t be one-size-fits-all; they must reflect the lived experiences of the workforce.
I’ve also come to see that a company’s core values truly come to life through its benefits plan. If an organization says “unity” is a core value and 50% of its workforce is women, but there’s no meaningful coverage for women’s health, then it’s not living its promises. Benefits are where culture becomes tangible. That realization has really driven my work to become a voice for change and evolution, so that support isn’t symbolic, but practical and aligned with who a company says it is.
Your new data report arrives at a time when employers are rethinking what it means to be competitive and inclusive—what are one or two insights from the data that surprised you most about women’s experiences with benefits and total rewards today?
Two findings really stood out to me from our data report.
First, 47% of women with benefits have delayed or avoided healthcare because they did not have adequate benefits. That’s nearly half of women, and these are women who technically have benefits. It challenges the assumption that offering a plan automatically means employees are supported. Coverage on paper doesn’t always translate to access in practice.
Second, more than 1 in 10 women have left a job due to inadequate workplace benefits. That’s not just a wellness issue; it’s a retention issue. Benefits directly influence career decisions.
At a time when knowledge and data are more easily accessible than ever, we have a responsibility to look at these numbers and make changes that actually matter. The information is there. The opportunity, and the obligation, is to act on it.
We know that providing info without providing action doesn’t do much. To combat this, we’re offering a benefits self-assessment for organizations to audit their benefits to see whether they are supporting women in the workplace. Following the audit, they are able to see the score and receive recommendations from our team on how they can do better.
When you sit down with HR and business leaders to design modern total rewards packages, where do you see the biggest gap between what organizations think they’re offering and what employees—especially women at different life stages—say they actually need to feel supported and stay long term?
The biggest gap I see is in how deeply organizations engage with their own data and what they do with it. There is a big discrepancy between what organizations think they offer and the reality.
Many employers believe they’re offering strong benefits because they have a plan in place. But the real work is taking a deep dive into health claims data, truly understanding how it applies to their current workplace today and anticipating how it will evolve at both the employee and organizational level. Without that analysis, plans can quickly become outdated.
Just like any business, organizations need to evolve and innovate to succeed. The same is true for benefits. Stagnation in employee benefits plans is a sure way to lose, or fail to attract, talent.
This is especially important for women, who move through distinct health life stages. Employers know their demographics. If, for example, 25% of a female workforce is entering menopausal years, organizations should be proactively activating plan designs so the right tools and supports are readily available. The gap often comes down to proactivity versus reactivity; designing benefits based on where your workforce is going, not just where it has been.
As a woman president and co‑owner in a traditionally male-dominated industry, how do you use your leadership platform to advocate for change in how benefits are designed, communicated, and measured—and what advice would you offer to other women leaders who want to drive similar change inside their organizations?
For me, it starts with continuous learning. I arm myself with knowledge so I can confidently challenge the status quo, not with opinion, but with facts and a clear map for change. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, credibility matters. When you can back up your perspective with data and a well-defined path forward, you create space for meaningful evolution in how benefits are designed, communicated and measured.
I also see employee benefit plans as one of the clearest windows into what employees actually need. It’s not just about what was reimbursed through the plan; it’s just as important to examine what kinds of health or disability claims were declined. Those gaps tell a powerful story about where support may be falling short.
My advice to other women leaders is this: join your voices. Speak to the younger generations. Be a motor of change so we can lead the way for those who will come after us. Leadership is not just about maintaining systems; it’s about improving them with intention and courage.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
