How a global snacking leader simplified benefits and won back employee trust

At a glance

• Moved from a legacy provider to Ben to modernise benefits without increasing budget.
• Introduced simpler employee journeys, rules-based eligibility, and live reporting for multi‑payroll cycles.
• Rolled out a multi-channel comms plan (Yammer, targeted emails, factory posters with QR codes) and bite‑size explainer videos to improve understanding.
• Early stakeholder sentiment: “quicker and more agile… it felt like a partnership.” — Benefits Lead, Northern Europe

The challenge

A household‑name snacking company with iconic brands had a familiar problem: benefits felt complicated and frustrating. Employees - especially factory staff - said they didn’t feel supported and found their existing platform unclear. Internally, the team were wrestling with:

• Complex pension scenarios (e.g., hardship requests, bonus sacrifice, AVCs) and approvals that weren’t working smoothly.
• Manual interventions and non‑streamlined workflows that slowed everything down.
• Disconnected workforce dynamics: hard to reach offline employees to drive awareness and utilisation.
• Limited flexibility to adapt quickly as expectations changed.

“Our employees started to complain… everything seemed so complicated… with high inflation, they’re expecting at least benefits to work well.”

— Benefits Lead, Northern Europe

The team also wanted more than a platform. They needed a partner who would bring experts to the table, answer tough questions, and move faster than the legacy providers they had relied on in the past.

“From the first meeting, it was very obvious you have a much more agile and hands‑on technology… it felt like a partnership, not just ‘here’s our system - take it or leave it.’ Everyone got their answers: payroll, pensions… it was so interactive.”

— Benefits Lead, Northern Europe

How Ben Helped

Ben combined a modern, configurable platform with a partnership-driven rollout to tackle three priorities:

1. Make complex simple for HR & payroll

• Tailored workflows for pensions, including hardship requests, bonus sacrifice, and AVCs.
• Sophisticated eligibility rules so the right people see the right benefits automatically - reducing exceptions and email back‑and‑forth.
• Live reporting aligned to multiple payroll cycles, giving the team real‑time visibility and fewer surprises.

2. Meet employees where they are (especially offline)

• Intuitive categorisation and a cleaner interface so journeys take fewer clicks and are easier to follow.
• Short explainer videos to demystify pensions, healthcare, and allowances.
• Comms for a mixed workforce: Yammer campaigns, personalised emails, and factory posters/digital screens with QR codes for instant platform access.

“We want things to do magnificent things but be simple… with your platform, we’re in a good position to have that.”

‍Benefits Lead, Northern Europe

3. Partnering beyond go‑live

• Ben proposed employee focus groups to validate priorities with real users rather than generic industry assumptions.
• Fast legal/commercial turnaround to keep momentum: “a very quick turnover… we simply were not used to that.”
• Transparent planning on data integrations and time‑to‑appear on the platform, avoiding the weeks‑long delays common with legacy tools.

Why Ben over a legacy provider?

• Agility and access to experts. Workshops brought payroll, pensions, and strategy specialists into the room so every function left with answers.
• Modern architecture. Faster time‑to‑value and lower implementation burden compared with slow, manual legacy platforms.
• Commercial clarity. Competitive commercials without front‑loaded implementation fees; structured to reflect a lighter‑weight deployment.

“Some questions from bigger players simply weren’t answered… you were one of the favourites from the start.

‍Benefits Lead, Northern Europe