Research from the University of San Diego suggests that through email, the internet, television and other media, we are presented with around 100,500 words a day or the equivalent to 23 words per second. That’s a lot of information to take in!
As one Forbes article writes, “Digital technology has evolved at a far quicker rate than the physical evolution of the brains we use to decipher and put it to use. Our brains aren’t built to cope with the ever-increasing volumes of data we are trying to cram into them”.
In today’s fast-moving, ever-changing digital world, the only way we can cipher through all the information is through personalization and relevancy.
Tailoring Rewards
A Deloitte article titled A shift toward tailor-made rewards discusses how despite the fact many leading organizations are aware that a personalized global benefits solution is essential for attracting and retaining talent, many organizations still fall short with outdated rewards programs.
Organizations that personalize their benefits and rewards programs and offer flexibility on an individual level have a huge advantage in the talent market. “Our view is that a system that offers a variety of rewards and a way to personalize them is the only structure with the required flexibility to meet the diverse needs and desires of today’s variegated workforce. Talent today wants a custom rewards experience that reflects how they live, work, and communicate—not a one-size-fits-all approach rooted in the past”, Deloitte shares.
Taking Things Personally
It has become apparent that employers need to provide employees with personalized employee benefits and rewards. Think about whenever you’re listening to Spotify or watching a film on Netflix - every time you log in, the experience is personalized based on your viewing or listening history or preferences. Your dashboard is unique. Why shouldn’t rewards and benefits programs offer a similar experience?
Allowing individuals to choose their own employee benefits through their personalized benefits and total rewards platform not only results in greater benefits usage and benefits satisfaction, but also demonstrates that you, as an employer, know, understand and care for your employees.
Take, for example, AstraZeneca - one of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies and one of the most popular hubs for talent. As a large multinational company operating in a highly competitive industry, AstraZeneca made the decision to invest in a benefits and total rewards platform to help manage and personalize its benefits offering.
Ulf Holmgren, Regional Benefits Lead at AstraZeneca, shares: “Through the Benify platform, they can choose what they’d like. For example, they can buy more vacation, invest it in their pension or withdraw the money in their next salary payment.”
It’s clear that AstraZeneca prioritizes employee experience and takes care of their employees. “I think we’ve done well; it feels like our employees know we want the best for them”, Holmgren adds.
How To Personalize Your Employee Benefits Program
Here are 4 ways you can introduce personalization into your employee benefits so that your offer appeals to every employee:
1. Flexible Benefits Plans
With four generations working side by side, each with their own preferences, it is a challenge for companies to meet the needs of every employee. However, with a flexible benefits plan and Benify’s award-winning benefits platform, companies can do exactly that.
Whether it’s the ability to choose a preferred supplier (e.g. for healthcare or childcare services) or the ability to choose which insurance or pension they want, giving your employees choice and flexibility to make their selections through their employee benefits platform allows them to personalize and fully utilize your global benefits offer.
2. Choose Your Own Reward
A Deloitte article explains how a consulting firm in Europe allows new employees to choose from a range of rewards options when they accept an employment offer. For example, new hires can choose salary or stock options, an extra week of vacation or higher pay – all through their benefits and rewards platform.
3. Flexible Budgets
Introducing a flexible budget model with a predetermined amount for each employee allows employees to spend their budget how they want.
In 2017, Benify teamed up with mobility provider Athlon in the Netherlands to offer a new, flexible benefit that allows employees to distribute their mobility benefit according to their personal needs and preferences.
The benefit provides employees with a yearly commuting budget to cover the cost of their transportation. Markus Kullendorf, co-founder of Benify, shares that this budget model “takes a popular benefit and infuses it with the flexibility that we have come to learn employees really want. For example, with an employee living close to work, he or she may opt to cash in his or her mobility allowance or spend just some of it on train or bus tickets; as the employee’s situation changes- moving to a suburb or needing a family-sized car, for example, the benefit can be applied to meet new needs.”
Benefits enrollments can be done quickly and easily through a cloud-based benefits and total rewards platform, which, in turn, automates the enrollment process and reduces paperwork.
4. Allow employees to select their own gifts
Give thanks and show appreciation by enabling employees to choose their own rewards. For example, instead of giving every employee the same gift at Christmas or work anniversaries and simply hoping for the best, choose a predetermined gift amount and then allow each employee to choose from a range of gifts that they can order inside their employee benefits platform.
Whichever of the above you decide, remember personalization equals relevancy, and relevancy leads to greater satisfaction and engagement.
See what employee benefits your employees actually want. We surveyed over 19,000 employees and HR professionals about their benefits. Find the results in our Employee Benefits Report today!
