The Microsoft success story

The challenge

Why did Microsoft need a benefits technology solution to support global growth?

“We have a great benefits operations process in the U.S. They have the right tools and systems, and it’s all digital. And previously the majority of our population was based there – we’re a U.S. based company. But we’ve had tremendous international growth in the last 20 years, and now we’re at the point where over 50% of our population sits outside the U.S. but we were still working on a methodology that we had 25 years ago to manage benefits – so excel files, SharePoint, emails, etc. We needed to digitise and modernise international benefits.”

How are you looking to deliver global consistency – as well as meeting local needs?

“I’m most excited about some of the captive work we’ve done in our global areas, as well as bringing in global minimum standards, which we haven’t had before. And we’ve been thinking through the branding and the employee experience.”

“We’ve really focused on how to get global benefits right – to take all of the great stuff that’s coming out of the central function in the U.S., and then overlay that with what employees need in-country and what’s culturally relevant.”

“We looked at the local benefits to compare across the market and figure out how we’re doing in those countries. Do we meet the philosophy that Microsoft wants to be known for when it comes to benefits? And then how do we start to bring the bigger picture together? This strategy has been built off this baseline of automation, digitisation and enabling employees to see the whole benefits package in one view.”

“Just in this last year with bringing in global minimum standards, we managed close to 70 benefits design changes, while leading with the wider approach of ‘here’s the Microsoft deal – and this is what it means in the big picture’”.

“Mobility is also a big piece of work here at Microsoft; you get to work from different countries if your job allows it. We want people to log into that benefits system and think, ‘I work for Microsoft. This is the same approach and enrolment as I had in my old country. It’s consistent, I know how to do this.’”

“And what we’re doing with technology is also increasing the opportunity for choice and flexibility wherever possible.”

The solution

How have you streamlined your approach to benefits throughout this process?

“We started this project by just asking the right questions and documenting things.”

“We’ve had to go back and challenge our policies at a leadership level. But what this process is allowing us to do is highlight where there are inconsistencies. We’ve gone from having about 600 global providers to 350 – partly by bringing in more global providers that cover multiple regions.”

“As the drive is digitisation, we’ve also been looking at how to make our eligibility parameters able to be digitised (rather than having, for example, eligibility determined by somebody from HR).”

“Lots of our local benefits are mandatory so we’ll continue to do work on that offering and do some long-term planning. Once we’ve got the technology in place, we’ll be looking at our five-year plan and what our steps are to get there.”

Employee experience was a key driver for rolling out OneHub – tell us about that…

“We’re really thinking about levelling up the employee experience and helping our employees understand what their benefit programmes are, why we’re offering them, and how those benefits fit within the whole deal we’re offering employees.”

“We wanted to be able to use our data in a way that really allows us to move forward and deliver an exceptional employee experience. Where are we getting claims data? Where are we using reporting? And how are we building a one-stop-shop that has our branding, and gets people excited about their benefits?”

“For example, we have an expert medical benefit that’s global, but nobody knew it existed. It’s available to employees, families, and their extended family – they can even give it to their grandma, grandpa or cousins. Getting that experience out to people and out to countries is so important so employees are empowered to get the benefits that they need. There’s a level of personalisation there – employees can decide what’s important for them – whether it’s an EAP that they need at that moment, whether it’s medical, whether it’s a second opinion…”

How will the platform rollout help Microsoft support employees in those ‘moments that matter’?

“Using technology is certainly going to help us deliver on those ‘moments that matter’. With what we offered before OneHub, if employees had something catastrophic happen medically, or even if they needed some help, there was nowhere to go beyond internal support – they could submit a ticket which might take some time to get a response to, or they could check SharePoint, which wasn’t ideal if it was a crisis situation.”

“It also wasn’t at all scalable. That’s not something you can do with 300,000 people. And employees were going somewhere else to get support rather than using benefits. But now employees can go to one place – MyBenefits – and get the information and support that they need.”

“Our global communications toolkits can be tailored regionally to engage employees in each region and if employees need any more help, the Benifex global employee support team is on hand.”

You had a significant administration burden to overcome – how were you managing international benefits previously?

“Previously our benefits programmes were managed in-country. All of the administration and the strategy and design was done at a country level. And at Microsoft, that includes a lot of different countries; we support 100 countries outside of the U.S with roughly 80,000 employees covered, and over 300,000 lives of family members covered, across nearly 800 unique benefits.”

“One of the things that we found very early in our knowledge-building process was that so much of the infrastructure that was holding up our administration was built off archaic ways of working. Whether that’s housing Excel files or SharePoint and emails – there was pretty lacklustre infrastructure there.”

“When we figured out the files being used to enrol employees into their benefits, we were looking at roughly 12,000 Excel files annually with over a million manually keyed data points on an annual basis. And that’s a lot of people doing that work. And that was happening because it was the least amount of resistance that would enable the countries to get people enrolled.”

“We wanted to get data from A to B without anybody touching it; we wanted to move data in a way that doesn’t need manual intervention – in a timely way – and then report on the end result. We wanted to get the basics right; the number one priority for us with this project was digitisation. We needed to build those repeatable processes, from setting up integrations to working with suppliers, and beyond.”

How were you looking to align global benefits with corporate strategy?

“We had to spend a lot of time looking at the data, a lot of time looking at the ROI to try to figure out how best can we use technology – being a technology company – to help our employees through these benefits selection processes.”

“We want to be known as a tech company. We also want to enable our employees to spend time doing what they’re here to do, and not spend time trying to track down suppliers, or send in forms, or fill out an Excel file. So, there was a piece around how do we build capability? How do we give time back to our employees? How do we give visibility to benefits?”

“It’s about getting consistent, making sure that you’re aligned with the philosophy, aligned with the big picture, and able to tell that story.”

Results

Can you tell us about your new platform journey so far?

“It’s been a pretty remarkable journey. We started with just a list of what purchase orders we had to do, and now we have a team of people really thinking strategically about the design of the benefits programme, and we’re in implementation mode.”

“We’re now able to showcase benefits in a way that we’ve never done before. ‘Just go [to the platform] to learn about your benefits. You can click out to other areas and we have all the apps in one spot. We also have quick links to other areas. You need to enrol or change? Cool, go there quickly.’ It’s all in that one view. And then we’re using the articles and the Home feed to create some excitement. Employees can see everything that they might not have known they had, as well as their benefits statement.”

“We’ve just launched wave one – which covers 8 countries (Australia, Singapore, Brunei, UAE, Ireland, Romania, Estonia & The Netherlands). That’s 13,500 employees and dependents.”

“So far, the engagement with the site has been great – it’s only been live a couple of days but already almost half of employees have engaged.”

What’s it been like partnering with Benifex?

“I couldn’t be more grateful for Benifex who have continued to go above and beyond. Microsoft is complicated and Benifex has been there with us to work through the complexity, with an eye on how best to support employees. It’s been a great partnership, and they have remained focused on the goal with a positive attitude throughout.”

“I’m looking forward to many more launches (32 to be exact) and building an experience we can truly stand behind.”

What advice would you give to other Reward and Benefits leaders undertaking a similar global project?

“Alignment is fundamental. To give a sports analogy – nobody plays a football or a baseball match without first understanding the rules. With this kind of global programme, you need to be a team that functions together to get to the end result. There are a lot of stakeholders involved and you’re driving significant change. So you need everyone playing the right role – whether that’s payroll, shared services, or IT and digital teams. You need to align everyone and ensure they’re clear on the objectives, how you’re going to get there, and how you’ll work together.”

“My advice is to be very structured and operational in your approach. That’s the best way to make it manageable and ensure you get to the result you’re looking to achieve.”