How to leverage technology to improve your benefits offering

How you apply technology to your benefits offering can make a significant difference in retention and recruitment.

Offering a range of benefits for employees is a great way to attract and retain talent. It can be what makes the difference for an individual choosing you as their next employer.

This is why your benefits strategy and offering needs to be reviewed regularly to ensure you are providing the right benefits to your workforce.

Your benefits need to address the needs of continually evolving employee challenges, but also give you return on investment (ROI).

Here are some ways that technology can help make your offering more personalised and and even flexible:

Employee surveys and analytics

It’s important to regularly survey your employees about their needs to gather feedback, which can then be addressed through your benefits offerings.

Surveys can reveal what benefits are most valued, allowing for tailored offerings, but can also identify areas which maybe need further communication to increase engagement and awareness.

Using data analytics tools to gather employee feedback can help you slice and dice the data, enabling you to identify trends in generations, locations or even salary band.

Technology can also help with the continual feedback loop, enabling you to re-run surveys again so you can compare the results more easily.

This will help you track your improvements or identify new trends that can be addressed.

Employee benefit platforms

Implementing an employee benefit platform that allows your employees to choose from a variety of options, such as health insurance, retirement plans, or wellbeing related benefits helps aligns with individual needs.

Barnett Waddingham’s (BW) digital employee benefits platform 4me even has an option to add sustainable incentives.

Platforms can help save time and reduce your administration by integrating with payroll and HR systems, enabling seamless integration with no need for manual intervention.

Additionally, they can help you offer and host a more diverse range of benefits which cater to all demographics, such as parental leave policies and student loan information, ensuring all employees feel supported.

These platforms also provide a wealth of data, helping you understand the value of the benefits you have on offer.

For example, BW’s 4me Insights (GEM) can provide data on employee behaviours, benefits usage, workforce segmentation, and potential cost savings.

If engagement with your benefits offering is low, you could look to enhance your communications around your offering, ensuring that you home in on benefits which align with any wellbeing or national awareness days.

Apps and online services

Technology offers an easy way to access health and wellbeing services more easily.

Most employee assistance programmes (EAPs) promote health and wellbeing or intervention in times of need - they can be accessed through an app, removing the barriers for access and providing instant support.

Workplace discounts also have apps for convenience when employees are out shopping and want to gain access to discounts on their shopping, further supporting an employee’s financial wellbeing.

The world has seen an increase in remote working technology, using platforms such as Teams or Zoom, which means that communication is now generally much easier and allows employees to manage their work life balance more effectivity.

By leveraging these technological solutions now, employers can save time and create a more flexible and personalised benefits package which ultimately leading to higher employee satisfaction and retention.