The report found that by embracing embedded finance, innovative HR-technology solutions can directly tackle key challenges affecting employees and benefit managers alike.

Flexible benefits cards: employee choice, business control is the latest whitepaper from Weavr and features research conducted with Censuswide, who surveyed 250 UK-based HR and benefits managers at companies with over 50 employees. 

The research highlights the acute challenge facing benefits managers of balancing the evolving needs and expectations of employees with meeting the needs of the company in a cost-constrained environment. On the one hand, 27% of benefit managers reported increasing cost pressures from the business. On the other, 80% of benefits managers surveyed reported having employees outside of the headquarters. Consequently, 58% of benefit managers work to ensure that employees are not excluded because of their location, yet only 18% currently have a solution in place to make that possible.

As a result of the mounting challenges from evolving employee demands of benefits and business costs, 50% of benefits managers have been researching new benefit solutions throughout this year.

The key features they’re prioritising include:

• 21% want to give more choice in how to redeem benefits allowances 
• 22% are seeking to deliver more relevant benefits 
• 58% want to be able to better configure and control their benefits offerings

Unlike traditional employee benefits which tend to offer specific services such as use of particular gym franchises, flexible benefits allowances allow employees to choose where to spend their benefits allowance across predefined themes such as wellness, learning, and more. When presented with the idea of flexible benefits allowances, 60% indicated that they would value such a system. Spendable benefits cards offer the potential for increased engagement from employees by offering more flexibility in where and when they spend their benefits allowances versus sticking to a set of preferred suppliers as seen in traditional benefit schemes. The cards appealed to HR or benefits managers as they offer robust spend controls, ensuring funds are spent according to predefined rules, with real-time alerts and instant transaction data. 

Alex Mifsud, Co-founder and CEO at Weavr which provides embeddable financial solutions that power flexible benefits, said: “In the past, employee benefits would be offered in the form of a fixed menu across a business. This was previously effective as most employees lived in the same area, often in similar living situations. The modern working landscape is now incredibly diverse, meaning that one-size-fits-all benefits packages are no longer desirable to employees – rather, they want the opportunity to choose the benefits that fit their lifestyles and give them relatable value beyond their salaries. Between rising business costs and differing expectations, especially from younger staff used to infinite choice through mobile and web payments, benefit managers are struggling to accommodate the drastic changes that need to be made to meet employee demand.

“Thankfully, there have been recent technological advances, such as the spendable benefits card, that are designed to solve these problems and provide enhanced flexibility for benefits. A flexible benefits model is highly beneficial for businesses as it increases employee engagement and retention, therefore alleviating hiring pressures and increasing productivity too.”

To discover more data-driven insights and learn more about the solutions benefit managers are exploring to solve the issue of non-flexible employee benefits, download the Weavr whitepaper from the Weavr website.