How to create a benefits platform that supports all of your staff

These days benefits are a key part of any employee offer. Especially in industries with lower pay levels, where employees appreciate extra value in the form of discount schemes, recognition or wellbeing benefits. But all too often, delivery of these schemes is designed around office-based employees, via a company intranet that requires a work email address.

Millions of UK workers don’t drive a desk – bus drivers, carers and factory workers just to name a few. There’s also the growing population of contingency workers and the wider gig economy. So to stay connected to their workforce, employers are turning to tech-driven solutions.

The best benefits platforms allow employees to access everything they need: anytime, anywhere. So what features should you include in order to support all your staff?

Mobile-enabled

To stay relevant, employers’ communications need to make intelligent use of existing channels. People in the UK now check their smartphones, on average, every 12 minutes of the waking day, according to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report (2018). It’s important to recognise that the way we access information is changing and relying on desktop intranet won’t cut it anymore.

Being enabled for mobile allows employers to send personalised push notifications and in-app messages to their employees. This not only helps create a communications network for remote staff, but can also help drive usage and adoption of the benefits platform. Furthermore, employees are more likely to engage via their personal device and make the most of relevant information in the palm of their hands.

Access to wellbeing

Many employers now offer services to support mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing. However, employees may prefer to access these confidentially, via their own device, in the privacy of their home – or indeed anywhere they feel comfortable.

The flexibility of a mobile-enabled platform allows employees to gain the greatest benefit from these wellbeing services, and in turn, the best return on investment for the employer.

One stop shop

The aim of platforms like these is to connect and engage your employees through benefits, incorporating additional programmes like wellbeing and recognition. However, you can also take advantage of their simplicity and ease of use to integrate operational HR communications.

Instead of several different HR systems, all with their own logins and passwords, a good employee benefits platform should serve as a one stop shop. For example, our Hapi platform can seamlessly link to other systems, including learning management systems, your own HR software, training systems and even rota management systems.

Whether employees are working onsite or remotely, companies need to develop better strategies for linking staff with their benefits. By optimising your benefits platform to support a diverse workforce, benefits can move from being a nice perk to a real asset in your employee engagement strategy.

The author is Ashley Doody, chief product officer at Personal Group.

This article is provided by Personal Group.