2. Your programme should simplify and consolidate the employee experience
We’ve all been there. From an employee perspective, remembering which platform to go to for which benefit – and when – is annoying. It’s also frustrating to enter the same personal information on each system in order to access a benefit. Or, to have to learn how to navigate different platforms.
And unless you’ve got all these systems centrally accessed by SSO, employees experience login fatigue and frustration.
Adapting to new ways of working during the pandemic only amplified these issues. Working from home has added a new level of complexity related to accessing work systems and staying up to date on benefits offerings and enrolment windows.
The result? Tools intended to deliver employee benefits and strengthen your Employee Value Proposition can actually negatively impact benefit uptake and employee engagement.
3. Your programme has to support communications to increase visibility and understanding of employee benefits
We all know the philosophical question that goes: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Well, that scenario can apply to employee benefits. I know many of you have had the experience of working to launch a new benefit only to find that weeks or even months later, some employees still don’t know that it exists. When this happens, the employees lose out on helpful support and on understanding the full value of their employment with your company.
The right technology can support communications efforts by building in opportunities for multiple touch-points to promote new benefits, alert employees of a new enrolment window and more. Using Reward Gateway internal communications tools on top of an inclusive flexible benefits system means that within your blogs, you can also cater to different learning styles by leveraging video, images and written content to make sure your message lands with impact.
4. Your programme should deliver an incredible user experience
This last element is where I’ve seen so many organisations fall short. It’s not enough to consolidate benefit offerings onto a single platform and let people know about it. The experience an employee has using that platform will determine if they ever want to return. It’s really make or break to determine the success of your employee benefits investment.
Employees want a workplace experience that matches what they’ve come to expect as consumers.
They expect experiences to be designed around how they behave, how they work, and what they need to feel connected and be productive.
When it comes to the digital tools they use in their day-to-day jobs, they expect them to be as easy to use, convenient, and intuitive as those they use in their personal life.
While communications are critically important for any sort of benefits programme, this doesn’t make a stitch of a difference if your employees do not find it intuitive, quick and easy to use. I’d also point out that mobile accessibility and the visuals are important here, to make your benefits experience as inviting as possible so your employees will want to engage with it.
While I could spend hours happily talking about how to build a flexible benefits strategy and how technology can support your journey, I’ll leave you with these four keys to success for now.
If you are interested in exploring a seamless, user-first flexible benefits platform that can help your teams and your people, click here to get in touch with our team.