01st November 2023
Guest Blog: Benefex hosts The Global Benefits Technology Summit
This year, Benefex hosted The Global Benefits Technology Summit, a gathering of 50 benefits directors. Our customer speakers spoke of their global benefits journeys and shared the insights and takeaways they’d gained from large scale global benefits technology rollouts.
We discussed the importance of global benefits technology for scaling companies who need to keep ahead of rapidly evolving employee expectations: from the business case for global benefits technology, to successful implementation strategies and digital transformation.
We heard from our own experts and guest speakers from Ciena, Snowflake and Ocado on their experiences implementing global benefits technology, and the impact on HR processes and employee experiences.
Here are our 4 key takeaways from the Summit.
1. The drivers for global benefits technology are compelling
Benefex EVP Global, Adam Mason, began the Summit by laying out the drivers for global benefits technology and its role in digital transformation; our Evolution report found 71% of organisations were considering a single global benefits technology platform.
Adam talked to the ongoing frustrations and challenges facing global reward leaders and employees. 35% of employees state their benefits and rewards are out of touch, while 32% say there’s a lack of consistency.
2. The business case for global benefits technology rest on strategic, tactical, and cost drivers
As more companies look to implement global benefits technology, this session explored the challenges they are looking to solve.
Luke Palman, Benefex Global Account Director and Oliver Bence, Benefex Strategic Consultancy Director, highlighted administrative savings and cost savings as key objectives for many businesses. They showed how global benefits technology typically removes 96% of benefits-related costs and reduced benefit-related support queries by 82%.
“Over 85% of organisations trust Benefex to manage all first line employee queries.” – Benefex Strategic Consultancy Director, Oliver Bence
Luke and Oliver also explained the Benefex ‘Simple – Complex’ model: Benefex’s four stages of international benefits technology that are applied to each benefits territory, along with local legislation, language and currency considerations.
- Single branded Reward and Benefits Portal
- Dependent Management
- Global Benefits Management
- Flexibility and Choice
3. An effective Global Programme Initiation avoids the need to make the same decisions repeatedly
“We’ll help assess where the best place to exert effort is, in order for you to maximise its return.” – Benefex Global Delivery Director, James Hardwick
In this fireside chat, Benefex Founder and CEO, Matt Macri-Waller and James Hardwick, Benefex Global Delivery Director discussed country implementation and roll out prioritisation.
James emphasised the importance of clear and defined objectives in every global benefit technology programme. He talked of the risk of racing to get going and inadvertently turning a global programme into a collection of projects. We’re ultimately trying to create a single platform with unified experience, so the design principals should be focused on that and captured in the form of a Global Programme Initiation.
4. The returns are worth the effort
Adam introduced the next session with our customers Ciena, Snowflake and Ocado, illustrating how benefits technology contributes to the digital transformation of organisations, along with key takeaways from each speaker.
Sophie Gilliam, EMEA Benefits Lead at Ciena talked us through their project, the priorities they set, and the journey so far. Their multi-year roll out covers 19 countries around the globe, with benefits technology successfully implemented in 8 countries already, including Spain, the UK, Brazil and India.
Grace Lafergola, Senior Benefits Manager at Snowflake, outlined their multi-year rollout to various countries, including the UK, India, the Netherlands, Japan, and more. She highlighted how their UK Benefex implementation of Snow Globe is expected to save 61 hours of work over the course of the next three years, along with their average ticket volume largely decreasing and employee satisfaction improving.
“Know what you’re trying to achieve, be clear on your objectives from the beginning, and have an open mind.” – Grace Lafergola, Senior Benefits Manager at Snowflake
Andrew Baillie, Head of Total Reward at Ocado Group, told the Summit how important it is to get the employee communications right. The amount of information available to people in a global benefits platform can be overwhelming if you haven’t got the right expertise and technology to present benefits choices in a clear way that inspires action.
Overall, a key theme shared across each of our customers who spoke about working with Benefex was their praise at our problem-solving approach and the ability to become an extension of their own team.
To learn more about how benefits technology is evolving and to see the five outcomes your benefits tech should be driving for your business, read our report, ‘What’s your reward tech ever done for you?’.
