Non-salary benefits are an essential component of motivating and rewarding employees for their engagement, building their loyalty, and attracting new talents, as many candidates – especially from younger generations – will not even consider job offers that do not include such benefits. According to this year’s survey by ARC Rynek i Opinia, commissioned by Enter The Code, an impressive 75% of candidates pay attention to the presence of these bonuses in job announcements. However, some of them – such as medical care or life insurance – are now seen as basic standards. Therefore, many employers are currently going a step further and introducing unique, personalized benefits, such as support in developing the employee’s passion or vouchers and cards for any pleasure.
As Karol Kamas, Marketing and Development Director of Pluxee Poland, shares with the Newseria Business Agency, “Employee preference surveys show that we are facing a revolution in the employee benefits market. Insurance, medical care, or sports cards are no longer enough, and employees expect something more that gives them a real benefit and value on a daily basis.”
Employee benefits are now a standard addition to salaries offered by most companies, regardless of their size and industry. In this year’s ARC Rynek i Opinia survey, 1010 people were polled, 806 of whom declared receiving such bonuses. The most common were private medical care (35%), flexible working hours (32%), and life insurance (28%). However, wellbeing benefits, such as increased paid vacation limits and workplace amenities such as a company cafeteria, free snacks and in-house training, were also considered attractive to employees. In fact, half of the respondents stated that benefits are a key addition to their salary.
Employers entice employees with such bonuses to motivate and reward their engagement and build their loyalty. In this year’s ICAN Institute study, carried out on behalf of VanityStyle, 97% of employers and HR department representatives from large companies (over 250 employees) and 91% from medium-sized entities (from 50 to 250 employees) indicated that non-salary benefits increase employees’ tendency to commit to the company. On the other hand, over half of the employed respondents believe that the non-wage benefits offered to them are not tailored to their expectations and needs.
In a separate survey by Enter The Code, 33% of respondents stated that their benefits are worse than those offered by other firms. Some benefits, such as medical care or life insurance, are already considered standard (55% of respondents in the Enter The Code study indicated this), which is why many employers do not stop there and introduce unique benefits, such as support in developing an employee’s passion, shorter working hours, or vouchers for any purpose.
“When we receive a bonus or reward from an employer in the form of a bank transfer, we treat this money as part of our monthly salary and allocate it to daily, larger expenses such as loan installments, bills or shopping. However, when we receive such a bonus in the form of extra funds on a card, it opens up the possibility of allocating them to something completely different, something that we would otherwise not decide on. We spend this money on what we want, not what we have to, on our own pleasures. It can be a trip to the cinema for some, a trip out of town for others or a gift that we would not normally afford ourselves. And Pluxee is just such a card for everyday pleasures,” explains Karol Kamas.
Pluxee is a new brand born out of the rebranding of Sodexo Benefits & Rewards, which specialized in loyalty programs and non-wage benefits for employees. From the outset, it has a strong position on the Polish market, thanks to 25 years of experience under its previous name, a portfolio of 50,000 customers, and 2 million users. Globally, it operates in more than 30 countries, providing services to over half a million companies.
“We reach two groups with our offer. First, employers, primarily HR departments, who use our pleasure cards to appreciate and motivate their employees. This is usually associated with all kinds of occasions, holidays, or employee anniversaries. Then such a reward, bonus, gift goes to the employee who can spend the funds accumulated on the card on their own pleasures – either in Poland or abroad – for example, on food, a gift for themselves or someone close,” explains the Marketing and Development Director of Pluxee Poland. “The second group important to us are marketing and sales departments, which use Pluxee cards to motivate their business partners or as prizes in all kinds of competitions or sales promotions. The rewarded person receives a card that they can use for whatever they want or need, wherever and whenever.”
Up to half a million transactions are made weekly in Poland using Pluxee’s prepaid cards and eVouchers. Employers – regardless of the size or industry in which they operate – can choose benefits for their employees from digital and personalized lunch cards Pluxee Lunch, Christmas presents Pluxee Prezent, through solutions such as Pluxee Meal, to a comprehensive and broad benefits platform Pluxee. Cardholders have access to them via an intuitive mobile application that provides easy access to their favorite pleasures. Currently, there are over 1.2 million registered users. Every app user can quickly check their account balance and transaction history, search for places where they want to make a purchase, and manage their preferences. Funds from Pluxee cards can be spent on whatever the owner wants.
“Cards – both plastic and virtual – and digital vouchers can be used for one’s own pleasures. Companies pass them on to their recipients who activate the card in the Pluxee mobile application. There they can check their balance and transaction history, manage their card, assign their own PIN or block it, if there is such a need as well as initiate online and e-commerce transactions with full authentication and payment security,” says Karol Kamas. “Pluxee cards have the largest and constantly growing acceptance network in Poland (the brand has over 50,000 partners), so every user can really find the pleasures they need.”
Pluxee, which originated from a transformation of Sodexo Benefits & Rewards, is a fintech operating in the HR, marketing, and sales areas. The new, digitally oriented brand aims to better meet the changing needs of customers and users. Its guiding principle is: daily pleasures.
“In today’s times, it is hardest for us to set aside funds for our pleasures, we save most easily on ourselves. Therefore, we created the Pluxee pleasure card so that everyone – without guilt – could spend these funds on what they really want, on their small dreams and needs, on coffee in town, going out with friends or the perfume they’ve always dreamed of. This is what Pluxee serves for,” says the expert. “Globally, Pluxee is a leader in the employee benefits market and sales support instruments. We combine competencies in the field of financial instruments and modern technologies to give HR, marketing, and sales departments effective tools for appreciating, rewarding, and motivating employees and business partners.”
As part of the strategic plan for 2025, Pluxee intends to invest at least 10% of its annual turnover in new technologies. The brand aims to, among other things, introduce innovations in the area of cashless payments and provide customers and their employees with easier access to its services through one digital platform. It also aims to intensify activities in the SME sector, expand its offering in the area of well-being and solutions that increase employee engagement, as well as focus more on dietary benefits, which are currently among the most desirable solutions.
“We also want to strongly mark our presence in the market of modern financial instruments,” says Karol Kamas. “We also plan a wide advertising campaign directed both at B2B – that is HR, marketing, and sales departments – but also advertising activities aimed at consumers, the ultimate users of our products. We want to be present on the internet, in social media, with display, video, audio ads to reach the widest possible audience.”
Pluxee aims to enable companies to build employer branding and the image of an attractive employer offering innovative and personalized solutions to employees. This is particularly important in the current labor market realities – given historically low unemployment, high personnel turnover, and growing expectations of especially younger generations of employees, who often do not even consider job offers without benefits. As shown by the ARC Rynek i-Opinia survey commissioned by Enter The Code, as many as 75% of candidates pay attention to the presence of such bonuses in job announcements. Another finding from the previous year’s edition of the same study revealed that 40% of employees would be willing to change jobs solely because of better benefits. In the case of two offers with similar salaries, this result is even higher, reaching 66%.
