Head of Total Rewards
Handshake
Liz Thomas is a seasoned Total Rewards and People Operations leader with more than a decade of experience building and scaling programs that help companies attract, retain, and grow exceptional talent. She currently leads Total Rewards at Handshake, where she’s been driving a full transformation of the company’s compensation and equity programs – developing new philosophies around promotion equity, equity refresh, geographic pay, and more. She also partners closely with the Compensation Committee on executive compensation, equity forecasting, and burn modeling.
Before joining Handshake, she led the People Operations and Total Rewards team at Checkr, where she built the function from the ground up – growing the team tenfold and overseeing everything from compensation and benefits to people analytics and HR tech. She’s also held People leadership roles at Omada Health, Rigetti Computing, and Lithium Technologies, where she played a key role in launching and refining total rewards programs, enhancing HR systems, and designing strategies that aligned people practices with business goals.
Today’s workforce spans multiple generations, each with its own unique set of values, priorities, and expectations—especially when it comes to employee benefits. What appeals to a Gen Z employee might not resonate with a Baby Boomer, and vice versa. So how can employers meet the diverse needs of their teams without creating an overly complex benefits package?
This session explores how moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach and embracing personalized benefits can create a more inclusive, flexible, and effective strategy. Learn how tailored offerings can empower employees to choose the benefits that matter most to them—leading to higher satisfaction, better engagement, and a stronger overall culture.