Employee benefits is the next area that fintech is going to take over, and why not? It might seriously help companies retain talent.
Employee benefits are one of the key driving factors when it comes to employee retention. Health insurance, retirement plans, bonuses, flexible hours everything is becoming more and more relevant when it comes to fighting the great resignation. We have all come across the notion that employees today are not fighting for survival, stability, or standard of living, but for quality of life. There is opportunity for candidates who are able to offer something that businesses need and hence, the employees too are increasingly picky about what they want from a job.
A recent Global Benefits Attitude Survey reveals that 48% of respondents would consider switching jobs for a better healthcare plan while 60% consider the healthcare plan to be the main driver for them to stay at the current job. 39% of respondents would move to a different job if better employee benefits are offered. Healthcare and other forms of employee benefits are even found to be more important to certain parts of the workforce than a bonus, a pay raise or flexible hours.
The issue with employee benefits is that it is not always tangible or quantifiable, even if it is tangible, it’s not as transparent as an employee would like it to be. This is where Fintech is making some serious strides. It is amazing how far fintech has come in a rather short time. Internet banking, online shopping, using payment gateways built into applications, are things that would seem far fetched bordering on impossible in the 1990s. From there on, today we can look at loan offers, we can compare interest rates, check our credit scores, and plan our insurance policies all from our connected devices – pohones or computers. It’s a brave new world. So, why not make employee benefits more transparent with the help of fintech? That is exactly what Future Family is doing with their healthcare fintech offering. The goal here is to make the healthcare benefits easily accessible, transparent, fair, and easy to pay for.
The employees have the option to choose their benefits and pay for it according to their convenience, the employer can pay its share in monthly installments instead of making an upfront payment. This sort of convenience can help a company make progress towards less attrition and more retention of talent. It is important that the employees can see what they are getting out of the employee benefits so that they can value it.
Also, there needs to be more variety in terms of employee benefits. The needs of employees can vary a lot depending on what they and their families need. It is better to let them control what sort of health benefit they want instead of making presumptive calls. For instance, an IVF coverage may be less important for an employee than a solid orthopaedic plan.
However, companies need to be careful not to encourage unsustainable debt. While an employee benefit program is meant to enhance an employee’s quality of life and security, it should not make it painless to overspend as it can land an employee in serious financial crises. With the amount of transparency, financial guidance, and data-driven inputs fintech is able to deliver, employee benefits is the next area fintech is going to take over.
