It’s never too late to change: deliver flexible employee benefits and retain a winning team

So Zest has changed the game: great tech, easily implemented in as little as a month.

Most employers have long known that committed, engaged and motivated people are a company’s lifeblood. Any that didn’t, were sharply reminded of it during the disruption and rapid change that accompanied the pandemic.

Despite the importance of building a winning team, retaining the best staff has rarely been more challenging. In a phenomenon dubbed, “the great resignation”, almost a quarter of United Kingdom workers are actively planning to change employment in the next few months.

Tailoring benefits to the individual is one of the most tangible ways that employers can demonstrate they understand and are committed to their people. That they treat them as individual people, not homogenous employees.

The workforce is rapidly changing and growing more diverse. Different people have different needs and priorities. To deliver a relevant benefit programme, employers need a flexible platform. And we have seen that using the right flexible platform dramatically boosts employee engagement.

Many employers have been put off implementing flexible employee benefits because setting them up has been too complex and time-consuming. Or they have stuck with difficult and inflexible flex platforms because they have feared what it wouldbe like to change.

But that doesn’t need to be the case anymore.

This eBook explains why employers don’t need to wait. Because of Zest’s lightning-fast set-up process, they can be delivering flexible employee benefits in days.

What employees want from an employer

The pandemic has transformed worker expectations around what an employer can do for them. They want:

• • Flexibility

    Some 47% of workers have said they would consider quitting if their job role does not provide them with flexibility around where they work and when they work.

  • Autonomy

    People want to work for employers that trust them to get on with the job and to have more control of their working life.

  • To be treated as a whole person

    According to one global study, workers that felt their employer supported their mental health were 26% less likely to suffer from symptoms. The relative success of employers in supporting wellbeing during the pandemic has raised expectations about how firms help people with challenges across the whole of their lives.

  • To be treated as an individal

    When it comes to motivating a team, one size does not fit all.

How a flexible employee benefit platform can help

The right benefit offer is crucial to attracting and retaining the best staff. Surveys show that between 69% and 78%of employees claim it influences their job choice. Some 75% of workers are more likely to stay with their employer because of the employee benefit package.

Staff that are happy with their benefit package estimate their engagement as 11% higher than average and 25% higher than the least satisfied.

A flexible employee benefit platform, such as Zest, can:

• • Improve engagement with benefit programme

    On average we see 89% of employees engage withour easy-to-use platform when it is set up.

  • Enable an employer to offer bespoke benefits

    that suit the needs of their workforce, and different people within the workforce. The Claims Centre is just one of the Zest tools that enables employers to empower their workforce with greater flexibility when it comes to the employee benefits available to them.

  • Adjust quickly to changing needs

    Zest’s Benefit Builder makes it very easy to add or remove benefits. Employers can respond in real time to new situations and changing demand.

  • Make benefits relevant to hybrid working

    employers can quickly update benefits so that they are relevant to new working arrangements. For example, benefits that could only be accessed “on sight” (such as a creche, yoga class, parties) can be made accessible to remote workers in a different way (such as through a voucher system) by quickly updating the Zest “benefit builder”.

  • Communicate value of benefits to employee

    Zest provides employees with all they need to know about the total value of their employment, not just their individual rewards.

It’s not too late to change

Very often benefits and HR managers believe they have a small window in which to change benefit platform. Even if they are not happy with their platform, they may feel they’ve missed the boat for another year.

With Zest, the lightning-fast set-up process makes it possible to change quickly. The entire set-up process can be managed in days or weeks, not months.

• • Lightning-fast set up

    Zest’s Benefit Builder can ensure a benefit platformis up and running in a fraction of the time compared to others.

  • Update quickly and easily

    Zest’s Benefit Builder enables configuration in a matter of minutes, not days. Because they can be updated at any time quickly and easily, not everything that an employer is likely to need has to be configured ahead of going live. It’s possible to get it going straight away and add more as time goes on.

  • Lower implementation fees

    Some 60% of organisations say that cost is their biggest barrier to implementing employee benefit technology. With Zest, less set-up time means less cost

“ The onboarding process was really smooth. Our consultant led us through the process and really tried hard to understand exactly what we needed.”

Laura Lodwick, Head of Internal Operations at BJSS, IT and business consultancy

Conclusion: start delivering flexible employee benefits now

Flexible employee benefits are a powerful way for employers to demonstrate their commitment. But staff will not stick around until the next enrolment window to see such a programme implemented.

Employers do not need to wait. With Zest’s superior and flexible technology, customers can be up and running with their new flexible employee benefit programme in a matter of days. Set up is lightning fast. It is easy to update the benefits offer.

“ We met at the beginning of January and the platform went live within a matter of weeks, enabling us to successfully complete our annual benefits window. It was a much quicker process than we have been used to previously, but the speed did not detract from the diligence.”

Helen McGowan, Rewards Manager, Travis Perkins