REBA Thought Leaders: Employers should embrace needs of all staff, says Debi O'Donovan

As benefits providers increasingly go digital and offer a personalised and more retail focussed experience to their users employers must remember to embrace all staff, says Debi O'Donovan, director of REBA.

Watch Debi O'Donovan's Thought Leaders interview in full

"Don't just focus on young digital natives but also those staff who are perhaps seen as technology luddites - they may need more focus to bring them in to a digital era," she says. And using your benefits platform and related apps is a great way of doing that, she says.

Digital proliferation is also opening up new opportunities to further develop agile workforces, says O'Donovan. But here she says that employers must also be careful how they treat these people. "We are seeing more people work for organisations on a contract or freelance basis. That presents challenges for HR and benefits professionals. They are key talent but they might not be as engaged with your organisation as permanent staff are. Employees need to think about these workers in a different way - see them as part of your strategy," she says.

O'Donovan will be chairing the 2017 REBA Innovation Day taking place on 23 November in London where such issues will be discussed in more detail. To hear more from her and other expert speakers, reserve your place today.

You can view the 2017 Innovation Day programme to see who else is speaking and register to attend. (REBA Professional Members attend for free, simply use the promotional code provided at the end of the film).