The most concrete expression of personalization is the choice program—a structure in which employees receive a subsidy or credit that they direct toward the benefits that matter most to them.

ABN AMRO’s Flex Reward Plan offers a clear example. The Belgian bank launched the program in April 2025 after recognizing that employee expectations had shifted. As Lien De Maeyer, Senior HR Reward Project Specialist, noted, “It wasn’t about having more benefits. It was about being able to choose what truly matters to you, and that’s something we really wanted to take seriously”[3]

The implementation involved extensive workshops, a test environment for hands-on exploration, and an ambassador approach—training internal colleagues as first adopters to support and motivate their peers. “That peer-to-peer approach was worth its weight in gold,” said De Maeyer. “It lowers the threshold and creates broader support across the organization”.

At Politecnico di Milano, technical and administrative staff receive an individual welfare credit of €500 annually, usable across health and care, education and training, travel and transport, sport and wellness, culture and leisure, and shopping The university recently added an extraordinary credit of €561,384 from an unused ancillary fund, distributed to eligible employees—a tangible recognition that enriched the value of the welfare program while expanding employee choice[4]

In Canada, organizations are using flexible benefits structures with personal spending accounts and health savings accounts to supplement regular benefits. This approach resonates across diverse employee groups, offering options like gym memberships and marathon enrollments . Some employers are also removing waiting periods so new hires receive coverage sooner, and considering extending benefits to part-time employees as retirement becomes less of a clear-cut transition .

The Operational Reality

Personalization at scale is not without challenges. The Gartner Peer Community discussions reveal that individual-level personalization is difficult for organizations with global size, where some sites have up to 1,200 employees The solution in many cases is group-level personalization—understanding the distinct needs of employee segments and designing for those segments rather than attempting infinite customization[6]

Technology is increasingly the enabler. More than half of employees say they are “very or extremely” interested in benefit decision-support tools during enrollment, and the same percentage want benefits designed for specific household profiles With 20% of employees reporting they feel overwhelmed during benefits enrollment and only 38% describing themselves as confident, personalization and decision-support tools offer meaningful ways to help employees navigate choices more effectively[8]

The Strategic Case

The business case for personalization extends beyond employee satisfaction. When benefits are misaligned with needs, organizations waste money on offerings employees do not value. When they are aligned, the same investment generates disproportionate impact on retention, engagement, and productivity.

The Prudential study found that the biggest risk to benefits value is “not a lack of coverage, but more to do with cost, complexity, and misalignment with real-life needs” Employees are looking for benefits that are relevant, affordable, and easier to navigate. The organizations that deliver on those dimensions will have a structural advantage in the competition for talent.

As Bianka Douglas, Vice President at Prudential, observed: “Benefits are no longer just a compensation add-on. They are a tangible expression of organizational culture and, increasingly, the determining factor in whether employees choose to stay” That requires, she added, “a fundamental shift from simply offering a full menu of options to rethinking how benefits are designed, delivered, and experienced”