5 Key Conversations We Had at Employee Benefits Live: What We Learned from You

What a couple of days we had at Employee Benefits Live 2024. It was fantastic to catch up with some of our long-standing clients looking to add new benefit suppliers to Hapi. We loved speaking to new clients just beginning their journey into our benefits technology and delighted to share our expertise with many more HR visitors keen to learn how Hapi could transform employee engagement for their business.

A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by the ‘big yellow stand’ – we really appreciated the opportunity to chat, share ideas, and explore the future of employee benefits with you. During the event, five key themes dominated our discussions. Here’s a summary of what HR and benefits professionals were most keen to talk about at EB Live.

1. Employee Engagement with Benefits Is Still a Challenge

Many of our conversations centred on one key issue - while companies may have good benefits in place, employees simply weren’t engaging with them. A recurring problem was access. Benefits were often buried in systems like SharePoint or dispersed across various platforms, making them difficult for employees to find or use. Even when companies had generous offerings, without clear, easy access, these benefits often went underutilised.

2. The Need for Simple, Effective Communication

Alongside access issues, the other common pain point was communication. How do you effectively communicate available benefits to a workforce that is increasingly remote, mobile, or deskless? Several people highlighted the difficulty of reaching employees outside traditional office environments, where email or intranet announcements just don't cut through. Without a simple, streamlined way to communicate the value of benefits, uptake and engagement suffer dramatically.

3. Existing Platforms Not Delivering Value

Another recurring theme was frustration with existing benefits platforms. Many attendees told us they were stuck with platforms that offered little value—either due to poor user experience or the very same issues around access and communication. They often found themselves locked into a system that wasn’t agile or flexible enough to meet the evolving needs of their workforce, but they weren’t sure how to make a change.

4. The Flex Platform Dilemma

Interestingly, many of our discussions centred around the desire for a flexible benefits platform. While flexibility is often seen as a solution for offering employees more choice, we had honest conversations with HR professionals from smaller companies, many of whom were realising that a fully flexible benefits platform might not be the best fit for their needs. Setting up and maintaining a flex platform can be costly and complex, and some smaller companies found it didn’t deliver the engagement or outcomes they were hoping for.

5. The Importance of Centralisation and Simplicity

From these conversations, one key takeaway became clear: the need for a centralised, intuitive platform that not only delivers great benefits but also simplifies access and communication. Employees don’t engage with what they can’t easily see or understand. A streamlined, mobile-friendly platform, with built-in communication tools, can make all the difference in helping HR teams showcase their offerings and drive real value for employees.

Employee Benefits Live gave us a chance to listen, learn, and share. The conversations we had were invaluable, and it's clear that many organisations face similar challenges when it comes to engaging their people with the benefits they’ve worked hard to put in place. At Personal Group, we’re more committed more than ever to helping our clients overcome these obstacles and our Hapi benefits platform was front and centre as the solution that truly works. Thanks again to everyone we met – we look forward to continuing these conversations and supporting you on your Hapi journey.

Did you chat with one of our team at EB Live or want to drop by but ran out of time? Don’t worry - get all their details and some of resources to download here.