Reward and benefits technology disruptors – what’s new?

As businesses strive to stay agile in a hyper-competitive environment, the intersection of reward strategy and employee experience has become a critical focus.

For HR leaders grappling with talent retention, internal mobility and the growing demand for personalised employee experiences, a digital solution can help reshape the way companies approach talent management.

So how is the most innovative tech making this seamless and intuitive?

By bridging long-standing divides in:

Policy and practice
Reward strategy and career development
HR intent and employee perception

Shifting from policy to experience

Employees today expect more than pay progression.

They want transparency, autonomy, and visibility.

They want to understand how their current role connects to future opportunities, and how their skills and aspirations align with business needs.

Many companies have invested heavily in reward strategies and talent frameworks but have found ROI diluted by limited employee uptake and awareness.

Much of the recent research on this is compelling:

Only 21% of employees feel they have visibility into internal career paths (Mercer Global Talent Trends, 2023)
A lack of career development encapsulates the top three reasons for employee turnover globally (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, 2024)
Conversely, employees who have made an internal move within two years are 75% more likely to stay (yet 4 in 10 workers are unaware of other roles or teams they could move into (LinkedIn 2024 Global Talent Report)
Internal mobility remains underleveraged, with only 15% of roles filled internally in many mid-sized UK organisations (CIPD, 2023)

These gaps reveal not only missed opportunities in talent retention, but systemic inefficiency in how reward, learning and mobility are being integrated.

The key question for reward leaders is clear: how do we connect meaningful reward with long-term employee engagement and internal career growth?

A new breed of tech disruptor

New digital solutions address this challenge head-on by reducing ambiguity around internal opportunities, encouraging lateral movement as a form of progression and making pathways visible and accessible to all.

Rather than relying solely on HR-led progression planning, new tools - such as Innecto’s Pathfinder platform - empower employees to take ownership of their careers through a clear, interactive and self-directed experience, including:

Career path visualisation - employees can explore lateral and vertical career options, view skill requirements, and understand how roles connect across departments
Setting target roles – starting from an employee's current role or desired aspirational role, the tech can lay out a ‘perfect’ career path
Skill gap analysis – where new skills are needed in order to progress, these can be highlighted
Real-time insights – by integrating with job evaluation frameworks the tech can also adapt to business changes and strategic priorities.

Driving strategic impact across the employee lifecycle

Rather than feeling opaque and disconnected from reality, “career development” becomes a tangible line of sight showing an employee how they can grow within an organisation.

This fuels engagement and aligns individual ambition with business need in a number of ways:

Retention through visibility - when employees can see multiple future paths within their organisation, they’re more likely to stay and grow
Internal mobility made real - HR can break down silos by mapping interdepartmental movement and surface talent hidden in plain sight
Agile reward design - reward structures can be more closely aligned to real progression, not just tenure or vague promotion criteria
Informed pay and progression – clear and visualised pathways provide a defensible foundation for pay progression, bonus criteria, and incentive design.

Looking ahead: Aligning strategy with experience

As more and more organisations seek to differentiate through culture, flexibility, and meaningful development, the career experience is emerging as the pivotal point where empowerment, transparency and strategy converge.

The future of talent is not only about finding the best people but also helping them find their own career path and a digital solution that offers employees the map, means and motivation to take control and thrive will become essential infrastructure.

For reward leaders, embracing this tech is a bold step towards aligning strategy with experience by presenting progression, recognition and purpose in a way that makes sense to employees while driving measurable impact on business goals.