Choosing the right employee benefits platform has become more critical than ever. Recent research shows that 80% of professionals in the UK and Ireland are not maximising their workplace benefits, with 35% expressing clear dissatisfaction with their current offerings.
A comprehensive survey of 500 UK HR Directors, conducted by employee money-saving platform Nous.co, uncovered a telling insight: nearly two-thirds (62%) acknowledge that their existing benefits packages are misaligned with employee needs, serving only a fraction of their workforce.
The problem isn't just about offering benefits—it's about delivery. When nearly half of employees don't even know what benefits they have access to, something's broken in how we communicate and manage these programmes.
After analysing data from thousands of employees using our FlexGenius platform, we've identified five capabilities that separate effective benefits platforms from basic systems. These features drive real engagement and deliver measurable value to both employees and organisations.
An effective employee benefits platform needs to do three things well: show employees what they have, make benefits easy to use, and reduce admin work for HR teams. The best platforms combine communication tools, automation, and flexibility to achieve all three.
Here are the five features that make the biggest difference:
Most employees underestimate their total compensation by 30%. Eight in ten get it wrong. Why? Because traditional payslips only show base salary, and annual benefits summaries are static PDFs that arrive once a year and get filed away.
A good employee benefits platform solves this with interactive total reward statements that employees can access anytime. These aren't just prettier versions of old reports—they're dynamic dashboards that update in real-time.
What you get:
The business impact: When employees understand their full package, they ask fewer questions about pay and are less likely to leave for a small salary increase elsewhere. One client reduced compensation queries by 40% after implementing dynamic reward statements.
Generic company-wide emails don't work. Your platform should let you send the right message to the right people at the right time.
Look for communication tools that segment your workforce automatically. For example, you might want to remind only those employees who haven't taken their full holiday allowance, or prompt people who haven't updated emergency contact details in over a year.
Practical applications:
The business impact: Targeted communications typically double engagement rates compared to blanket emails. More importantly, they surface issues before they become problems—like identifying benefits that nobody's using so you can either promote them better or remove them.
If your HR team is downloading spreadsheets, updating records manually, and reconciling invoices by hand, you're wasting resources and introducing errors.
Modern platforms connect directly to your benefit providers through APIs and secure file transfers. When an employee makes a change, it flows automatically to the right systems.
What good integration looks like:
The business impact: One mid-sized company calculated they were spending 15 hours per week on manual benefits administration. After implementing API integration, they cut this to under 2 hours. That's over 650 hours a year freed up for strategic HR work.
Holiday trading through salary sacrifice is one of the most popular flexible benefits you can offer. Employees love the autonomy to buy extra days off or sell unused days for additional income.
Your platform should handle this automatically—calculating the cost, spreading payments across the year, and tracking organisational savings.
How it works:
The business impact: A 100-person company typically saves over £7,800 annually in National Insurance through holiday trading. For many businesses, this covers most or all of their employee benefits platform costs. And employees get genuine flexibility in how they balance time and money.
Yes, if it's done right. Salary sacrifice schemes for technology and home appliances are massively popular because they deliver real financial value to employees while generating NI savings for the business.
The best platforms include integrated portals where employees can purchase items from premium brands, pay through salary deductions, and track their savings—all in one place.
What employees can access:
The business impact: Salary sacrifice schemes consistently rank in the top three most valued benefits. They help employees afford items they need without taking on debt, improve financial wellbeing, and demonstrate that you're offering practical support beyond the basics.
Start by auditing your current situation. How much time does your team spend on benefits administration? What's your benefits utilisation rate? How many employee queries do you get about pay and packages?
Then prioritise the features that address your biggest pain points:
Don't just compare feature lists. Ask providers for evidence of impact—usage statistics, engagement rates, and client case studies that show actual results.
The market is shifting from basic benefits administration to strategic employee experience platforms. With 72% of workers citing salary as the most important factor when choosing a job, and employers navigating the challenges of meeting the anticipated average expected pay rise of 4.5%, businesses need to show the full value of what they offer.
By implementing these five high-impact features, HR leaders can showcase the full value of their total rewards package when base salary alone cannot be the competitive differentiator. Organisations that prioritise these platform capabilities will be better positioned to demonstrate their investment in employees' wellbeing, financial security, and professional growth—ultimately creating a more engaged, productive, and loyal workforce in today's challenging talent market.