There’s no doubt enhancing the employee experience has become a key business priority in today’s talent marketplace. What part do employee benefits play in building a strong employer brand?
The employee experience evolution
People who report having a positive employee experience have 16 times the engagement level of employees with a negative experience, and are eight times more likely to want to stay at a company (McKinsey & Company). Research shows that workers want an appropriate physical and digital environment that gives them the flexibility to achieve work-life balance. Organisations can deliver tailored interventions that focus on critical moments to maximise satisfaction, performance, and productivity.
The Republic of Ireland and the UK are the European countries with the largest range of employee benefit choices, including pensions, discounts, flex funds, and medical care. This can mean complex administration due to the numerous options to customise benefits, choose bonuses, add dependents and so on.Efforts to manage benefits are typically characterised by disjointed HR technology, complexity of global reward systems, and administrative overwhelm. The statistics speak for themselves:
- 79% of employees say that employee experience is more important now and 77% say their expectations have increased;
- 47% want better technology to make benefits simpler and easier to engage with;
- 83% of employees expect consumer-grade technology for international benefits; ;
- 35% of global reward directors are spending too much time on ‘firefighting’ and administrative activities to take a strategic view.
Source: Benefex (a Zellis company)
How can employers enhance the employee experience?
The Evolution Report, Benefex’s global research study examining employee priorities, motivations, and frustrations, found that:
- 52% of employees report that their expectations around benefits provision have risen over the last 12 months;
- 38% say that their employee experience is excellent, compared with 32% last year;
- 64% believe that a commitment to employee wellbeing is very important when choosing an employer.
A sister company of Zellis, Benefex pioneered OneHub in answer to evolving employee expectations of global benefits technology. The platform creates a digital home for reward and recognition, benefits, wellbeing, and culture.
It also provides a single point of communication with staff, driven by the single sign-on and self-service capabilities. It allows employers to connect, shape, and deliver employee experiences in one place, and allows employees to have all things work-related in the same place.
Rather than the limitations of an annual selection period, benefits can become an everyday resource of personalised choices and content. The benefits platform contains brokered benefits and off-the-shelf perks, real-time total reward statements, and analytics (benefits spend, budgeting, engagement and take-up). Administration, reporting and automation.
Other features include engaging communications to deliver meaningful messages to employees anywhere in the world,. There is 24/7 employee support in over 100 languages, multi-currency options and pre-approved benefits providers that are easy to implement and competitively priced. With the card-based allowances, employees can access their choice of benefit, be that wellbeing, fitness, learning, or anything else that a company allows.
Mobile and app-based recognition and reward, including social and video recognition, mean that everyone can share in the moment. This is regardless of location or work format – via mobile, desktop, email, Slack, Teams, or Workplace. Companies can measure the emotional impact of reward and recognition and use heatmaps to track successful collaboration networks to make data-driven decisions.
Rewards and lifestyle employee benefits help stretch salaries further
With OneHub Reward, employers can assign reward budgets to different departments, populations, or managers and control spend easily. The platform is fully configurable according to the desired outcomes (from currencies to cultural values). Employees can redeem rewards instantly, on any device, with easy-to-use online vouchers or a digital Mastercard in relevant currencies. The manager rewards functionality lets leaders reward exceptional work by employees, with vouchers from 1000s of online retailers, while control can be kept centrally or given to managers across teams and territories.
The discounts platform helps employees stretch their salaries further, by providing daily savings, discounts, and cashback on everything from phones and fuel, to home and holidays. Features include a lifestyle savings module and a dashboard to monitor engagement. The wellbeing platform connects wellbeing experiences across content, communications, policies, and benefits. It also shares customised and guided emotional and physical support for each employee. The tailored content, healthy habits, and motivational challenges are designed to help employees build resilience and live well.
OneHub centralises and customises content and resources from an employer, such as pensions, life assurance, the bike-to-work scheme, and employee assistance programmes. Local providers include leading pension and health insurance companies. Meanwhile, discounts are available from the likes of Tesco, Irish Life, Circle K, Samsung, Apple, Bookings.com and Hotels.com.
Why choose Benefex to deliver employee benefits?
48% of employers using global benefits technology say it helps them demonstrate the value of everything they offer employees. Organisations across various sectors are on board with Benefex, helping employees make the right benefits choices and delivering consistent global employee experiences. These include Bank of Ireland, Sony, Salesforce, Diageo, EDF, and Bank of America, to name a few. By communicating stories and content around values and behaviours, they’re strengthening their cultural identity and fostering a workplace where employees feel connected, valued, and inspired.
By communicating stories and content around values and behaviours, they’re strengthening their cultural identity and fostering a workplace where employees feel connected, valued, and inspired.
“OneHub from Benefex allows employers to go to the next level in terms of optimizing the employee experience. By complementing our payroll services with a one-stop shop for employee benefits in Ireland, businesses can add serious value to their HR proposition.”
Seán Murray, Director of Product Services, Zellis Ireland
The digital platform connects all employees regardless of role or location – including those who aren’t at a desk or computer every day. Employers are looking to create more tailored and hyper-personalised experiences by using benefits technology and automation in a scalable way, such as matching content and benefits to the life events that employees are going through. Meanwhile, the automation, seamless UX and multi-lingual, multi-channel employee support massively reduce the administrative burden on HR and benefits teams.
Benefex has established a proven track record in helping more than 900 organisations across 80 countries transform the experience of over two million employees. The multi-award-winning company has remained at the forefront of global benefits technology for 20 years. It’s currently developing a digital wallet that allocates allowances on a range of benefits of an employee’s choosing.
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