Why we decided to reinvent employee benefits technology

Zest have been providing benefits technology to employers and leading employee benefit consultants (EBCs) since 2004. Over 350 businesses use our technology to power their benefits programme. We’re constantly talking with our users, users of our competitor’s technology and employers that have no benefits technology at all. Through those conversations it has become increasingly apparent that the industry could do much more for its customers.

Increasing expectation

Firstly, existing employee benefit platforms haven’t kept pace with other sectors. Employees and administrators have become used to the seamless consumer experience provided by technology leaders such as Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. This includes a consistent experience across all devices, rapid performance, on demand processes and reporting and the highest level of security.

To address these needs, we decided to go back to the drawing board and build Zest from the ground up. This has provided the freedom to incorporate the very latest technology, providing cutting edge performance and best in class security.

It also means that we have been able to incorporate best practice from outside of our industry. We designed our solution in conjunction with a market leading UX Design Agency who have worked with the BBC, Amazon and Microsoft amongst others. For someone that cares passionately about user experience, it has been great to receive compliments on the ease of use of the platform during our demonstrations.

Saving time and money

Secondly, benefits technology has previously been too costly and too time consuming for many employers to consider. This isn’t just true for smaller employers. HR teams within large organisations also have limited project capacity and capital to invest in new systems. The upfront investment has also prevented employers from switching platforms, even where they were unhappy with their existing technology.

During our press briefings, we demonstrated our new Rapid Benefit Builder, which enables us to construct any benefit in no time at all. This translates into less time and lower implementation costs, while also making renewals a breeze. It was great to see the eyes of the audience light up as we showed them how we have revolutionised this previously complex process.

Maximising value

Lastly, users want to extract more value from the information held within their benefits platform. The industry has often touted the virtues of better information, but platforms have restricted the ability of users to extract information on demand in a useful format. The last thing users want is expensive administration or consultancy services to paper over the cracks in their benefits platform.

We have designed Zest with your data in mind. This will allow us to do some extremely powerful analysis across our customer base and provide unique insight that will help our customers to build schemes to better attract, motivate and retain talent.

The launch of Zest represents the biggest step forward in the industry for a decade. Why not request a demonstration so you can see the difference for yourself?