The marketing industry has been using personalisation to engage consumers for years. This started simply – emails from brands addressing us directly by name – and has now become an expected part of our customer experience.

Snowballing change in technology however has now paved the way for ‘hyper personalisation’. This is about harnessing data sets such as income, age, interest, personality and possibly even genes, to tailor products and services specifically to individuals’ preferences and style.

With people seeing more personalisation throughout their private lives it is highly likely they will start to expect the same in their working lives. This could include tailoring training programmes to employees most effective learning style as well as putting in place individual development and career plans.

Hyper personalisation will also drive the expectations people have on the benefits they receive. People will be looking not only for benefits which reflect their current situation and circumstances but those which are flexible enough to change and grow with them as they develop through their career. Whilst the benefits will vary from person to person and team to team, the packages will have to be seen as having an equivalent value.

The future of benefits will change extensively alongside this, not only will hyper personalisation require the ability to tailor packages to individuals, it will likely also drive an increase in the variety of options made available. We can already see this change happening with generation Z coming into the workforce and a shift towards companies offering  perks such as gym memberships and other wellbeing benefits. The younger generation care more about flexible working than healthcare coverage, and with millennials making up to 60% of the workforce by 2030 this shift is already starting.

Reflecting this difference will be vital if companies are going to cater for increased demands for personalised benefits. While current packages may not reflect the difference in age group, we believe companies will soon be pushed to offer benefits that are complementary to a variety of different lifestyles.

The challenge will be to understand members preferences in order to build a package that is suitable for them and then to be able to change that package as those preferences evolve. Technology will play a key role in employers’ ability to find a smarter way of harnessing all of the data available to them and in understanding members’ needs.

We can already see changes happening in the workplace and the majority of these changes have been driven by technology. Hyper personalisation is just one of these and if companies are hoping to attract and retain top talent then they must take notice of these shifts and act on them.

Benefit packages will need to change and be a lot more flexible and all-encompassing to the employee’s life. Traditional benefit providers will need to change their offering accordingly and technology providers will need to enable and support new and blended products.

*This article originally appeared in HR Zone on 26th July 2017. You can view the article here.

About the author

Natanje Holt

Business Development Manager, EMEA

Based in our London office, Natanje’s role focuses on developing relationships with workplace and retirement businesses in Europe and the UK. Alongside a long history in technology and business services, Natanje spent almost three years as chair of the Retirement Council at the Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA).

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