How virtual cards can power employee benefit experiences

With a surge in focus on workplace health and wellbeing, employee benefits have never been more important. According to a study by Adler, 50% of job seekers would consider applying for a job based on the benefits alone, and 43% said that they would leave their job if their benefits were stopped.

To attract and retain the best talent, companies are having to go even further in what they offer employees to set themselves apart. Although the attention is quite rightly on the benefits themselves, the way those rewards are given and accessed cannot be overlooked.

Embedding financial solutions like virtual cards opens up a raft of possibilities. User experience is often just as important as the outcome, so the more swift and seamless a benefits platform can become, the more it will distinguish itself against the competition.

Automatic, fast and seamless

Employee benefits have long followed the same traditional model. Whether it’s a gift card for a restaurant or a gym membership discount, the employee is given the means to receive the benefit but has to redeem it themselves. They almost become a middle-man as opposed to the end user.

It’s a model that’s persisted even into the digital age. Physical tokens might have been replaced by virtual coupon codes, but the onus is still on the employee to take that code to the service and complete the transaction. It remains clunky, and uptake suffers as a result.

But benefits are there to reward employees. Accessing them should be instantaneous and not feel like a chore. It’s an area that’s ripe for innovation, and the tools to do that are already here.

By weaving virtual cards into the platform itself, you remove that friction for the employee. When they log into their portal and see they’re able to redeem a spa day, for example, the platform can create a virtual card and pay for it then and there.

It’s smooth and it’s automated. It’s invisible to the employee, seamlessly part of the service. The employee just has to turn up to what they’ve booked, and doesn’t even know that a transaction has taken place in the background.

Fully customisable

In a world where hybrid working is ever increasing, benefits have to be flexible to match. It’s no good offering membership to the gym nearest the office if that’s not where your staff are.

Virtual cards embedded into the platform allow benefits to be customised, giving employees the financial autonomy to choose what they want. Like with ThanksBen, whose benefits marketplace is powered by Weavr. The infrastructure we provide allows for the flow of money to be routed and controlled, meaning employees aren’t restricted to using their benefits with one brand or provider.

That flexibility isn’t limited to formal benefits either. Virtual cards can help to automate the process of giving ad hoc spot awards or recognition for long service. Managers can easily reward staff from a set aside pot. There’s no need for the manual process of buying a gift card or going through payroll, and the employee still has the flexibility to decide how they spend it.

Embedded finance doesn’t replace the traditional spot award – it just creates a more integrated way of giving it. It’s as simple as a manager logging into their portal and finding the employee they want to reward. As soon as they hit the button, the financial transfers take place invisibly.

Integration is closer than you think

Previously, to build this type of superior customer experience, you would undergo a huge financial and compliance burden. You would need to engage with a plethora of institutions: Banking as a Service providers (BaaS), fraud prevention companies, AML and KYC, KYB vendors, SCA providers, BIN sponsors and many more. And it would cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds.

For all that expense, it would still take six months to take a proposition to market  – if you’re lucky. More likely it would take you nine or even 12 months. 

With Weavr, that time-to-market becomes 4-8 weeks, at a fraction of the cost, and the compliance burden is taken care of for you.

Usually great benefits platforms are associated with corporate giants. But in reality it’s the innovators and startups who are bringing a fresh take on how to reward their employees and raising the bar for everyone else. If you’ve got the expertise you need to make the front end experience, Weavr can supply the financial infrastructure to make you dangerously competitive in a growing market.

We know that embedded finance can sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Weavr is a plug and play solution that works straight out of the box, and it’s designed to enable any business to seamlessly integrate any financial service anywhere their customers need it.

If you’re looking to create a flexible, automatic benefits experience via integrated virtual cards, get in touch to see how simple Weavr can make it.