Your Benefits Are Great. Too Bad Nobody Knows About Them: John Cove (LIVE @ Transform 2026)

WATCH: https://youtu.be/QDBe3Td7Sls Recorded live at Transform 2026, this episode features John Cove, Vice President at The Alterity Group — a third-party benefits and HR technology advisory firm that helps large and jumbo employers find, evaluate, and maximize their vendor relationships across benefits administration, HRIS, payroll, 401(k), and more. John spent 20 years on the in-house side — running benefits, payroll, and HRIS programs — before moving to the advisory world, giving him a perspective that's both deeply operational and genuinely independent. The conversation opens with a moment of real humanity: two working dads at the end of a long conference day, talking about presence, FaceTime, and what it means to be there for your kids when your career takes you on the road. That tone carries through an episode that's unusually personal for a benefits-focused conversation, with John sharing two stories that hit hard — a 2 AM telemedicine call that kept his croup-prone infant out of the emergency room, and a caregiving support benefit that helped his mother navigate will preparation and power of attorney during a family member's terminal illness. Between those stories, John delivers sharp, experience-backed frameworks on how companies should evaluate their benefits stack, drive utilization, position benefits in the candidate experience, and think about ROI beyond just the numbers. He makes the case for healthcare navigation as the next essential platform layer, explains why site-of-care redirection saves employers and employees real money, and shares why claims-based personalization — AI that nudges employees toward preventive care based on their own health data — is the most exciting development he's seeing in the benefits space right now. This is a practitioner's episode: specific, grounded, and full of ideas you can actually use. Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-cove-alterity/ Learn more: http://www.AlterityGroup.com