The technology

of benefits

Employee benefits are the extra perks and advantages that employers provide to their employees, beyond their regular salary or wages.

Employee benefits platforms are business management systems used by organisations to centralise and streamline the management and admin of its employee benefits offering.

Usually, employee benefits platforms will be made available on a self-service basis to employees as well as the HR and benefits teams, enabling employees to access and update their personal information and benefits selections from a PC, tablet or smartphone.

For HR and benefits teams, an employee benefits system will normally include reporting and communication tools to help the business to understand the uptake and effectiveness of their benefits offerings, and to communicate important information to employees surrounding their benefits scheme.

Organisations operating internationally, with staff employed in multiple countries, need to ensure that the benefits they provide comply with local regulations, and their impact on local taxes are taken into account and managed properly. A global benefits platform needs to be able to offer different benefits to different employees based on factors including their country of employment and their salary, and calculate any tax savings to the employee and/or the employer based on local tax law.

Employee benefits platforms help organisations to manage their employee benefits schemes more efficiently, reducing administration costs and ensuring the accuracy of their benefits data. Organisations can also report on which employee benefits are popular, or not, and adjust the benefits they provide and promote based on this data.

By giving their staff access to a benefits system, filling it with benefits that are relevant to each employee, and communicating with their workforce, organisations can also increase the uptake of employee benefits among their people, increasing employee engagement and retention. In addition, by increasing the value of benefits used by their employees, organisations can save money through benefits provided on a salary sacrifice basis by reducing their employer’s National Insurance costs.

The amount spent by individual companies will vary significantly and depend on numerous factors including their culture, financial performance and the level of competition for talent in their sector.

The cost of employee benefits platforms vary from provider to provider and will depend on the amount of functionality you require, the number of employees using the solution and the length of the contract you commit to. Zest offers three different pricing tiers to our customers.

The implementation time for an employee benefits platform will vary across vendors and also depends on the complexity of your organisation and your benefits scheme.

Another frequently overlooked factor is how quickly each customer organisation can provide the required information and feedback during the implementation process. Many enterprise benefits platforms take multiple months, and sometimes years to implement.

Because Zest has been created with flexibility in mind and is implemented by our experienced, expert implementation team, it’s possible to get you up and running with your benefits system in a matter of weeks.

Attractive employee benefits packages help companies to attract new staff, keep them engaged and motivated, and retain employees who might otherwise be tempted away to a new job elsewhere. Employee benefits can also help to improve the mental, physical and financial well-being of employees by ensuring they have access to helpful services and resources such as health and dental insurance, gym memberships, financial coaching and access to counsellors.

Employee benefits can also be used to help employees and employers to access valuable perks while reducing the amount of tax and/or national insurance they need to pay.

Employee benefits systems can save organisations money in four main ways:

• They’re able to reduce the amount of administrative time that HR and benefits teams need to spend on facilitating their benefits schemes.

• Employee benefits systems will normally provide reporting tools that show organisations which employee benefits are unpopular but may still be costing the business money, which can therefore be removed or swapped for a different offering.

• By providing and promoting an attractive benefits package, organisations can reduce their recruitment costs by making their organisation more attractive for new candidates and also reducing turnover among existing employees.

• By helping to increase the uptake of employee benefits among their staff, organisations can reduce their employer’s National Insurance contributions when providing staff benefits via salary sacrifice.