Last week, we opened the doors to this year’s Employee Benefits Live. For an event that is almost 12 months in the planning, the two days seem to fly past at alarming speed. But, after more than 20 years of working on, and attending, the event, it remains one of the highlights of my working calendar.
As ever, the two days were filled with so many fascinating conversations, listening to inspiring speakers and meeting our fabulous exhibitors in some of the most creative exhibition stands I have seen.
This year, I thought I would share some of my highlights and top takeaways from the event:
Correlation with sport
A real pinch me moment this year was our opening keynote session with former England footballer and broadcaster Jill Scott MBE. Having the opportunity to interview her on stage during a fireside chat was very much a highlight.
It can be easy to overlook the number of correlations between the HR, reward and benefits, and sport. However, there is much that can be learnt from the sporting world when it comes to building resilience, engagement and team culture, as Jill highlighted.
The need to support grief
On a more serious note, something we have seen increasingly flagged by employees is the desire for more support around bereavement in the workplace. While many organisations have polices around this in place, these are often quite rigid and do not take into account the differences in how grief affects everyone.
This was highlighted by another of our keynote speakers, mental health campaigner and author Ben West, who used his own bereavement journey to describe what employers should take into consideration when supporting employees. While not always an easy topic to discuss, West highlighted how employers should take a proactive approach designed to pre-empt some of employees’ needs, for example, noting anniversaries in order to offer additional support around these if needed.
This is such an important issue, which is likely to affect all employees at some point in their working lives, so it is crucial employers have a flexible, empathetic framework in place to support their workforce.
Developments in technology
The rise in artificial intelligence over the past few years has resulted in numerous debates around its capabilities.
I was, therefore, fascinated to hear British Airways’ Josephina Smith’s explanation of how the airline has used AI to create personalised video total reward statements for its workforce. These have already been rolled out to 4,000 of the organisation’s management team, with plans now underway to extend this to front-line employees.
I’m looking forward to seeing how more organisations adopt AI within their reward and benefits strategies in the coming year.
Challenges around DEI
The current challenges around diversity, equity and inclusion may just be a blip. While the DEI world currently feels like a place that isn’t nice to be at times, particularly with DEI almost being weaponised to some extent in the US, this is just part of a long arc to social progress, according to our final keynote speaker of the event, Georgie Willis, head of diversity at Eurostar.
A number of the issues the industry is experiencing in this area are caused by individuals feeling isolated, which presents an opportunity to evolve both DEI and DEI-adjacent work, they explained.
Whatever this looks like for an organisation, however, it may not be a quick process, so it will be interesting to see how employers’ approaches to DEI play out over the next few years.
Making connections
Finally, with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns now just a slightly surreal memory, in-person events and meetings are very much the norm again. As someone who works remotely, I always value the opportunity for face-to-face conversations.
While we work alongside the employee benefits industry every day, we are aware that we may sometimes view things from a different perspective to industry professionals. Having the opportunity to discuss the latest trends and some of the current issues facing both employers and the wider industry, therefore, is invaluable, not only for our own knowledge but also to ensure we continue to produce content focused on the issues that matter.
Across the two days, I was also fortunate enough to catch up with a number of familiar faces, some of whom I hadn’t been in contact with for some years. These conversations and reconnections were a wonderful reminder of the friendly and supportive nature of the industry as I enjoyed several trips down memory lane! And, of course, it is always lovely to make new connections.
With that said, it is time for us to reflect on this year’s event and begin planning for 2026!
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
@DebbieLovewell
