Benefex launches OneHub Wallet as 73% look to introduce benefit allowances in next 12 months

London, Tuesday 20th August 2024: Benefex has today launched OneHub Wallet to enable employees to personalise their benefits to exactly what they need.

Benefex’s 2024 research report, The Expectation Exponential, revealed that 73% of organisations plan to introduce at least one benefit allowance in the next 12 months. Of the organisations already offering benefit allowances, 43% are having to manage them via payroll and spreadsheets rather than through an automated allowances platform. 

Acting on feedback from customers – who wanted to be able to offer greater choice in benefits (reflecting the diversity in their organisations), reduce admin, and keep everything in one place – Benefex has extended its benefits allowances offering. As well as existing modules for reimbursement / spending accounts within OneHub, Benefex now also offers card-based benefit allowances via OneHub Wallet.

Speaking in advance of the launch, Benefex Founder & CEO, Matt Macri-Waller commented, “The number one way global employees say benefits could be improved has always been greater flexibility and choice. But continuously adding benefits one-at-a-time, on top of an already well thought-through offering, doesn’t deliver the rapid increase in choice for employees. Organisations are trying to balance these employee demands with the need to reduce the administration, cost and resource involved in constantly adding new benefits to their programmes.  

While flexible benefits and discounts are the foundation of an effective reward strategy, we see card-based allowances as a new and complementary category that sits between the two; used alongside benefits, allowances are a way to really make your proposition stand out to existing and potential employees who are bringing increasingly higher expectations to the workplace.” 

OneHub Wallet is the ultimate way to uncap the limit on choice and treat employees as an audience of one because anything can become a benefit, within your rules. For example, employees can choose to spend their allowance on books, clothes, hellofresh, food delivery, or a yoga class at a local studio – anywhere that accepts card payments.  

Card-based allowances complement existing benefits schemes by putting even more choice in the hands of employees with one contract and a single monthly payment. OneHub Wallet can be easily tailored to specific people or specific use-cases (such as wellbeing, travel, or work-from-home setup), without any additional admin required. 

Benefit allowances create emotional connections between organisations and their people 

“Benefit allowances help employees feel valued. Behavioural economics tells us that we feel differently about money depending on how it’s given to us. Benefit allowances that are given to employees as part of their paycheck are likely to lose significance as they disappear into the pot for regular expenses. But, allowances help organisations create greater impact by keeping the funds separate from an employee’s everyday spending,” commented Matt Macri-Waller, Founder & CEO of Benefex.  

The digital cards can be branded which creates a further connection between employees and employer.  

The initial rollout of OneHub Wallet has evidenced a truly positive impact on people’s lives, health, families, minds and finances and led to a much higher engagement in benefits than normally seen as anything becomes a benefit.  

“The implications for an employer’s wider reward objectives such as engagement, retention and attraction. The 96% engagement we’re seeing is truly staggering, but unsurprising considering card-based allowances directly address the challenge that employers are facing in providing greater flexibility and personalisation within their benefits provision across multiple markets”, concludes Matt Macri-Waller.