The A-Z of Zest’s employee benefits tech

Welcome to the A-Z of Zest’s employee benefits tech, your front-row seat to our platform, tools and clever integrations that make us the Technology of Benefits.

Whether you’re an HR hero, a payroll pro, or just someone who loves a good acronym, this is your ultimate guide to Zest and how our technology makes work life smoother, smarter, and a whole lot more fun.

So, grab your favourite drink and get ready as we explore the A-Z of our tech that’s making employee benefits less of a headache and more of a high-five moment.

A is for Auto enrolment made simple

Just like all of the other benefits you can manage with Zest, you can create rules that control who has access to each Pension scheme. Set how much your maximum employer contribution will be for groups of employees based on factors like their role, length of service, location and salary too.

We can also manage your auto enrolment compliance needs, including postponement and auto enrolment notices, and confirmation of opting in, opting out or cyclical re-enrolment

Employees can easily flex their Pension contributions up or down and see the impact any changes will make to their take-home pay and their tax and NI savings. There’s also SMART salary sacrifice to increase their Pension contributions from just their NI savings and keep their take-home pay the same.

B is for Benefits automation

At Zest, we don’t just have one form of automation.

Import and export with our scheduled processes. Employers can ‘benefit’ from:

• Life event automation – based on employment changes like salary or grade
• Life event automation which is triggered by data
• Scheduling windows
• Built in eligibility (all forms of automation)

When someone’s employment changes their eligibility changes, giving them access to a lot of new and exciting opportunities when it comes to their employee benefits package.

C is for Compelling content

Using our innovative Content Management tools, we help employers to effectively promote their broader employee value proposition and recognise the contribution of their teams.

Help your people to better understand their benefits, policies, wellbeing information and other content, using our tool to target specific engagement groups with ease. A strong, personalised comms approach towards your employees is key to improving interaction with your platform.

D is for Discounts

Stretch salaries further with discounts of up to 18% at popular brands for your employees.

Zest’s Discounts offering lets your people save on the things they already buy, from the weekly shop to meals out, clothes, travel, entertainment and experiences.

And the best part? Discounts is fully integrated into our flexible benefits platform, allowing you to manage both benefits and Discounts seamlessly in one place.

E is for Easy synchronisation

Employee benefits technology shouldn’t cause nightmares for HR and People teams.

Zest seamlessly connects with your HR and payroll systems, so everything stays in sync. No silos, no spreadsheets, no manual headaches.

By updating information automatically, you’ll also benefit from improved accuracy, ultimately saving everyone time.

F is for Flexibility

With Zest, as well as the benefits you provide through our platform, you can also give employees pots of money for them to spend on products and services that they choose.

Want to provide employees with a wellbeing budget? Employees can claim against a personal allowance for services like health checks, home gym equipment, counselling sessions, massages or personal training. Want to help employees be productive at home? Let them claim for items such as ergonomic chairs, extra monitors or standup desks.

Whatever flexibility you want to give your employees, you remain in control, setting budgets and approving or rejecting claims before they’re reimbursed. When claims are approved, Zest communicates with your payroll to reimburse these expenses in the next payroll period.

G is for Go live

Most benefits platforms can take months (or even years) to implement. With Zest, you’ll be live fast, no matter how complex your benefits programme.

Think up and running in a matter of weeks rather than months or years.

H is for Helping hand

You know how when you have a support question for a big tech company, you can’t get hold of anyone for ages, and when you do, they’re not very helpful? Yeah, we hate that too. We pride ourselves on giving amazing service to our customers because we live and breathe benefits.

With our Employee Helpdesk service, we give every employee access to step-by-step guides and videos, all available within their benefits portal, to help them answer common questions they may have. It saves them any frustration, increases benefits uptake, and means HR and benefits teams have to deal with fewer queries.

I is for Implementation

We mentioned we can get you up and running quickly, and that’s thanks to three reasons, all unique to Zest!

1. Our codeless benefits builder means that however complex your benefits programme is, we don’t need techy developers to set things up. It’s codeless, configurable and really, really fast. Once you’re up and running, benefits can be added or updated in minutes.
2. Our slick implementation process is smooth and stress-free
3. Our amazing team of implementation experts know benefits inside out and guide you through every step

J is for Journey mapping

Ever felt like employee benefits technology can be a bit…disjointed?

We have too. That’s why we use journey mapping to walk in your employees’ shoes. From the moment they first hear about a benefit to the moment they use it (and beyond). By mapping out these steps, we identify exactly where things could be smoother, quicker, or more engaging.

The result? A benefits experience that feels intuitive, personalised and effortless for your people, while giving HR teams the insight to keep improving it.

K is for Key insights

With Zest, employers can understand the uptake on benefits, who’s interacting with the platform and which channels employees are coming through (mobile or desktop).

We also provide key insights into the savings being made in terms National Insurance contributions.

With knowledge comes power, and by knowing the ins and outs of how employees interact with your technology, you can then directly improve communications and employee engagement, ensuring that your benefits package is getting the best return on investment.

L is for Launch services

Ignite engagement with your new benefits platform from day one, with our launch communications service.

With Zest Launch, we’ll craft and deliver engaging, internal communications campaigns that drive awareness about your new benefits system, and get your people taking action from day one.

M is for Marketplace

The Zest Marketplace is your one-stop shop for all your employee benefit needs. We’ve handpicked best of breed partners from our network of trusted providers to ensure you have the best offering available to your people, allowing you to craft a bespoke benefits scheme that perfectly aligns with your people’s needs.

With simple sign up, preferential rates and simple integration with your Zest platform, we’ve done all the hard work for you.

N is for Net Promoter Score

The proof is in the pudding!

Our NPS is +76, sitting well above the industry average.

O is for On-demand

With some platforms you’re stuck raising manual service requests, waiting days or weeks for essential data. Sometimes a provider may even charge a fee for the privilege!

Not with Zest! We empower users to access your data whenever you need it and in a format that works for you. There’s no third-party admin services, no hidden fees, and no consultancy costs.

We keep your data accurate and up to date with self-service tools and smart integrations that sync with your providers automatically. Customise and automate your data flow to eliminate manual reporting and administration. You can access it anytime, anywhere.

P is for Powerful eligibility

Our eligibility engine eliminates the need for manual benefit allocation often required within other platforms.

Create groups with complex rules and easily set different selection options and funding levels for each group.

Q is for Quality Assurance

Unlike some of our competitors, we build our own tech, which means we have an in-house quality assurance team working continuously to ensure our product is the best it can be.

Our team work directly with the developer and test each piece of functionality as it is built. This happens before we deploy to live, and we also have automated tests that run nightly so that any new code produced during the day is picked up by tests.

R is for Recognition

Everybody likes to be acknowledged for their hard work and achievements. With Zest, employees can give their co-workers a shoutout which everyone can see when they log in. And if you want to, HR and benefits teams can assign rewards to employees who receive a mention.

S is for Simplifying complexity

Our benefits builder offers unrivalled flexibility, allowing you to introduce any scheme and future proofing your system. And that’s not all, our comprehensive and codeless configuration options allows changes to be made quickly and safely.

T is for Technology led

We continuously invest in our platform, ensuring our customers benefit from the latest innovations and maintain a competitive edge.

Security by design ensures robust protection and providing peace of mind against already meet standards

U is for Unlimited access

Who said employee benefits had to be selected when sat at your work desk? Forget clunky one-size-fits-all platforms, multiple passwords and different systems, the future of employee benefits is now at your fingertips.

Our mobile app brings the Technology of Benefits to thousands of people anywhere, anytime!

Employees can also benefit from secure biometric login, such as fingerprint or facial recognition and swift access to benefits information without the hassle of remembering passwords or PINs.

V is for Vision

We’re championing a new era of employee engagement through technology.

In our vision, employee engagement goes beyond benefits administration and breaks away from a one-size fits all approach.

With our platform, we’re building a future where employees are at the heart of every decision and organisations understand that employee engagement is not a one-time thing but an ongoing activity.

W is for Winning technology

It’s not just our customers that love us!

Our flexible employee benefits technology has been recognised by a number of industry professionals, with recent award wins including:

• Best Employee Benefits Technology – Corporate Advisor Awards 2024
• Workplace Tech of the Year 2024 – National Technology Awards

X is for X-ray vision

Ok, there was always going to be a few hard ones when it came to the alphabet.

With Zest, your employees can see all the information regarding each benefit available to them in one place. They can update their benefits, add new benefits or flex existing ones up or down, at any time, or during benefits windows you control.

And with our Total Reward Statement, your staff can see the impact of any changes on the tax and NI savings they’ll make, the employer’s contributions they’ll receive and their take-home pay. So, when they make their selections, they can be confident they’ve made the right choice.

Y is for year-round engagement

The popular sister of compelling content!

Employee benefits aren’t all about annual enrolment, so how do you ensure that you’re engaging with colleagues throughout the year.

Thanks to Zest’s innovative Content Manager, you’ve got some of the most powerful internal communications tools at your fingertips. By using it to focus on year-round engagement, you can ensure colleagues are interacting with your platform 365 days a year.

Z is for Zest

And you thought we would struggle with Z? Just in case you still need an introduction, we’re the Technology of Benefits, an easy-to-use, self-service employee benefits platform where your people can manage all their workplace benefits in one place, without needing to juggle multiple logins or remember a million passwords.

Looking to supercharge your employee benefit technology? Book a demo with our team today!