Companies often struggle with keeping their workforce happy. Employee benefits is one area that is overlooked in this regard. Neelima Joshi, the HR Head of a mid-sized automation manufacturing firm in Nashik, realized that their employee benefits plan wasn’t keeping up with changing times.
It still focused on paper-based meal vouchers, manually issued fuel reimbursements, and standard insurance with little room for personalization. Employees, especially younger ones, wanted more flexibility, value, and usability. One engineer asked if he could use his benefits for groceries. A team lead shared that most of her allowance went unused because it wasn’t compatible with her preferred vendor.
In such cases, many companies’ benefits strategy becomes a checkbox exercise. It doesn’t adapt to how people actually live and work. Let’s unpack why traditional models fall short, and how digitized employee benefits programs are reshaping the benefits landscape.
Personalization Is No Longer Optional
Across verticals like industrial manufacturing, pharma, and IT services, workforce expectations have evolved. Today’s employees, across the board, want options they can use, not just benefits they’re told to accept. Neelima’s company offered the same static package to everyone: a meal card, a transport allowance, and a mobile phone reimbursement.
But people’s needs vary:
- Field staff need easier access to fuel reimbursements
- Remote workers want flexibility in meal or internet spends
- Mid-level managers seek digital-first benefits they can track in real time
According to a 2023 Mercer report, 72% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company that offers flexible benefits tailored to their lifestyle.
Learn more about five reasons why companies are switching to flexi benefits.
Ideally, a single card for multiple benefits; whether it’s meals, fuel, or wellness-related spending; online or offline, across any VISA/RuPay merchant is more helpful than traditional benefits plans.
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Paper-Based Systems Drain HR Bandwidth
Even with well-intentioned plans, if the backend processes aren’t scalable, the entire system begins to break under pressure. HR managers can end up constantly answering queries about delayed loads or missing claims. Policy enforcement can become tedious, and every month-end can feel like a race against time to finalize benefits data for payroll. Even the most well-meaning benefit plans fall short when held back by slow, paper-based processes.
The result?
- Time lost in manual claims processing, follow-ups, and reconciliation
- Frustrated employees, unsure when (or if) their allowances would reflect
- Frequent errors in enforcing load limits, verifying policy adherence, or spotting duplicates
Modern employee benefits demand modern execution. With digital-first solutions like Zaggle Save, all benefits are centrally managed and instantly disbursed. KYC is completed via mobile, approval flows are automated, and dashboards offer a live view of usage, limits, and exceptions.
That’s how HR and finance reclaim their time, reduce manual errors, and deliver a smoother employee experience – without adding headcount.
Non-Usage = No Value
Even if systems are in place, they’re only as effective as the engagement they generate from employees.
At a pharmaceutical company based in Ahmedabad, the HR department was puzzled. Only 38% of employees were regularly using their meal allowance. Even more concerning, less than 25% submitted claims for fuel. It wasn’t that the benefits were irrelevant, they simply weren’t being used.
Digging deeper, HR realized that most employees found the process too cumbersome. Claiming reimbursements meant scanning paper receipts, uploading them to a portal, waiting for approvals, and often chasing responses.
This is the hidden cost of rigid, traditional systems. Benefits may look good on paper but fail in practice. When benefits are difficult to access or understand, employees disengage. Over time, this leads to lower satisfaction and a sense that the company isn’t truly supporting their needs.
By replacing clunky workflows with a unified, digital-first benefits card like Zinger from Zaggle Save:
- Employees can make payments at any Visa/RuPay merchant: online or offline
- There’s no need to juggle multiple portals or logins for different allowances
- Balances, transactions, and limits are visible in real time via mobile
- Spending is tax-efficient, seamless, and aligned to their real-world needs
- Employees can avail of offers from brands like Pizza Hut, Burger King, Blue Tokai, and many more
Are your employees availing of the benefits you are offering?
Give employees a plan they’ll actually use.
Book a demo of Zaggle SAVE today.
Compliance Isn’t Optional: It’s a Priority
Flexibility and usability are only half the equation. Compliance and audit-readiness matter just as much.
One of the biggest concerns for finance teams is compliance. As companies scale, scrutiny over tax-saving allowances, reimbursements, and audit trails increases.
Finance is often worried about:
- Policy breaches
- Incorrect deductions
- Lack of digital trails during audits
With SAVE, everything is 100% RBI and Income Tax compliant. Admins can set limits, enforce eligibility, generate reports, and manage records, all from a centralized dashboard.
Why SAVE Is Built for the Future of Employee Benefits
To address every challenge across the board, you need a system that’s built from the ground up for agility and scale.
Zaggle SAVE isn’t more than a mere benefits card. It’s a flexible, intuitive, and employer-first employee benefits plan designed for the hybrid, distributed, and digitized workplaces of today.
With Zaggle SAVE, you can:
- Create customizable benefits plans per department, grade, or region
- Digitally load and track multiple allowances in one secure card
- Ensure full tax and regulatory compliance at every step
- Give employees real-time control and transparency
- Reduce manual errors, delays, and administrative overhead
Whether you’re managing 100 employees or 1,000, SAVE adapts to your structure and scales with your needs.
It’s time to move from fragmented perks to unified, intelligent benefits.
Conclusion
Modern workforces can no longer do with just regular benefits. They need to turn towards better and more flexible employee benefits that are usable, compliant, and relevant. Static plans, paper trails, and one-size-fits-all perks no longer work in today’s dynamic, competitive talent landscape.
With SAVE, HR and finance leaders can deliver a modern employee benefits plan that truly supports their teams. One that simplifies spending, maximizes value, and fits effortlessly into everyday life.
Ready to modernize your employee benefits experience? Book your free demo of Zaggle SAVE today.
