What does good look like – The core capabilities of Zest

The definition of good is a funny thing.

To some, it’s embracing the summer sun, spending time with the family or the smell of bacon sizzling away in the pan (other breakfasts are available).

Good can often be the sort of thing that helps you forget about the deadlines, or the upcoming four hour journey through endless traffic. But what does good look like when it comes to employee benefits technology?

We’ll give you a hint, it’s not endless administration. It’s not complex benefit schemes. And it’s certainly not clunky one-size-fits-all benefits technology. Good employee benefits technology should be about personalisation and customisation, catering to the unique needs and preferences of each employee.

In short, good looks like Zest.

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.

Here, we look at the core capabilities of our award-winning technology, and how they can help organisations of all sizes and industries create a better workplace culture.

Employee Benefits

Let’s start off with our bread and butter. The Ying to our Yang

Employee benefits are at the heart of everything we do, the reason why people come and talk to us. It’s rare that employers are interested in only discussing our other capabilities, it’s usually about employee benefits first and foremost, and that is where we’re a market leader.

And that’s because of a number of factors:

• We believe in making benefits engaging, personalised, and simple, and offer the best employee experience in the market.
• Our self-service tools put you in control, eliminating the need for costly third-party admin services that often slow you down. Our flexible platform lets you manage your people, their benefits, and other company content with minimal effort.
• With the Zest Benefit Builder, complex benefits can be configured in just 30 minutes without a single line of code, so we can get you up and running in days, not months.
• Our platform automates your administration. Whether it’s automating benefit changes based on life events, reporting scheme changes, or integrating with your existing HR platform, Zest has you covered.
• We help you to better understand your people and access your data on demand, in the format you need. Create custom reports and gain insights into benefits uptake without incurring consultancy fees.

Pension Auto Enrolment

A subset of employee benefits.

Amongst your flexible benefits offering, the ace in your pack when it comes to employee rewards is most certainly your Pension. And to say that a good Pension is important is most certainly an understatement.

Not only do employers need to enrol their people into a Pension, they also have a series of obligations around giving them rights to join a Pension, opt out of a Pension, and they have to communicate with their employees in a particular way.

Within Zest, we provide auto enrolment capabilities, meaning the platform can handle all of those aspects for you based on data that’s being fed into it.

And if you’re wondering what the building blocks of a good Pension look like, we’ve got you covered.

Employee Management

The source of functionality that you will find in HR form.

In order to deliver our benefits capability, as well as some of our other capabilities, we need loads of information about your employees that typically comes from the HR platform.

You can update all of that information through Zest’s technology. Employee details will come in on a feed from a HR platform, updating employee records in bulk. With no manual intervention required, our effective-dated employment records allows us to maintain data integrity and benefit data seamlessly.

Payslips

One aspect of that is payslip information.

Employers are able to present payslips alongside employee benefits selections, alongside their Total Reward Statement, alongside other information (you can never have too many alongsides when it comes to employee benefit technology).

It creates that full employee experience and a single source of information regarding your overall employee benefit proposition.

Employee Engagement

Don’t be under the impression that having an employee benefits platform is job done! The technology and benefits you offer are only half the battle. The way you engage with your employees, for a matter of fact, is the real pièce de resistance.

And our platform caters for engagement in two ways!

Firstly, by being able to present content. Content around your broader employee proposition as well as just benefits. We’re talking aspects including wellbeing information, important notices and people policies to name a few.

Secondly, it’s being able to send campaigns to certain cohorts, or your entire business, to communicate key information.

Picture the scene. You’re running a campaign around Cycle to Work. You’ve got all of the Cycle to Work providers and some different kit in the reception area this week, every lunchtime.

Employers can use our platform to drive (or should we say pedal) people through the Cycle to Work benefit while also focusing communications on certain cohorts of their people. Reach out to all or specific groups of employees with ease!

Discounts

The fresh face amongst our fantastic core capabilities!

In today’s economic climate, where inflationary pressures are impacting everyone’s purchasing power, it’s crucial for employers to find ways to support their employees’ financial wellbeing.

Zest’s Employee Discounts works to help your employees’ salary go further without the need for direct salary adjustments, providing a tangible way to show that you genuinely care about your employees’ financial wellbeing.

It’s fully integrated within Zest, providing a seamless and trusted employee experience for users of the technology.

Recognition

Modern ways of working mean it has never been more important to make employees feel valued and keep them connected to each other.

And part of the end-to-end experience is being able to recognise your colleagues. Whether that’s a line manager recognising a colleague, whether that’s peer-to-peer recognition, Zest makes it simple.

Insights

Last but certainly not least!

According to our research, a fifth (18%) of HR leaders say they don’t currently have access to detailed data on the take-up of specific benefits, with a staggering 82% saying employee benefits technology would make their job significantly easier.

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).

Amongst other things, it can 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.

Want to know more about what good employee benefits technology looks like? Book a demo with our team today.