The Personnel Today Awards judges praised Meet & Engage’s tailored approach, which supports candidates from application to job offer and its appealing social-media inspired platform. We look at their winning entry and those of our other innovative finalists. The HR Tech Provider of the Year category is sponsored by Wisdom.
WINNER
Meet & Engage
More than eight in 10 candidates say they do not trust the recruitment process, and 65% do not receive consistent communications during the hiring process, according to research from Aptitude. Meet & Engage aims to help employers overcome the barriers to a positive candidate experience, such as teams struggling to cope with a high volume of candidate queries, non-standardised processes, difficulty measuring engagement and communications that are not personalised.
The company has developed Recruitment Process Nurture, so from the moment a candidate applies for a role to when they are offered or decide to withdraw, they are nurtured through each stage of the journey. It is continually improving the solution to ensure content is tailored to candidates, offering content around work readiness skills and chatbot technology that can share information at different hiring stages.
Meet & Engage uses a branded, social media-style portal experience to engage with candidates, including wall posts, videos, images and links. Candidates log in when they need to or when prompted, and can register for group chats, access a help desk and create instant messaging threads. On average, 95% of candidates that have used the system said the content that was shared was useful. One client saw a 17% uplift in candidates completing the first assessment stage, and another a 74% increase in Black heritage clients. Even those who were declined roles had higher brand advocacy after using the platform, leaving positive feedback scores.
RUNNERS-UP
Benefex
Benefex is the company behind OneHub, which helps employers to consolidate all of their benefits, wellbeing, recognition and reward tools onto one platform. The business has more than 900 customers, covering more than two million employees across 80 or more countries.
In October 2023 Benefex launched OneHub Wallet, which provides employees with personalised and flexible benefits options and supports companies to follow specific reward strategies. It also reduces administration levels and supports higher take up of benefits, as companies no longer have to manage multiple suppliers. Ninety-six percent of employees use their OneHub ‘card’ at least once a month, despite the offer only recently being launched.
Through OneHub Home, employers are elevating benefits out of an annual selection period and into an everyday resource for employees. Some companies have seen benefits engagement more than double, and one HR director says their scheme (which includes a range of sustainable benefits like EVs) is “making a real difference to employees and the environment.”
Benefex has also created a Trees with Benefits initiative, planting a tree for every benefit selected by employees through OneHub – so far, 419,100 trees have been planted in Lamahi, Nepal, with plans to plant one million trees by mid-2025.
eArcu
eArcu was developed in 2009 to help businesses make informed, data-led recruitment decisions. In 2021 the company was acquired by PageUp and the merger has enabled the company to offer customers a complete solution. The talent acquisition suite includes career sites that can be personalised to enhance the candidate experience; automation of candidate relationships; AI-powered Q&A to connect candidates with the business; applicant tracking; video interviews and candidate testing.
The features of the system are highly configurable and can help to attract, manage, track and onboard candidates, while integrating seamlessly with other HR systems to ensure data accuracy and ensuring processes are at their most efficient. The company prioritises system monitoring, with 99.9% uptime achieved over the past 18 months. Customers report an average satisfaction score of 4.4 out of 5.
Clients report significant increases in website visits, reductions in administration time and a rise in applications. Candidate experience improves because time to apply is dramatically reduced, and job offer accuracy increased. They are able to reduce their reliance on external agencies and improve representation of diverse groups. Judges described eArcu as “a talent acquisition system that does a number of things very well”.
Flip
Flip is an employee app that connects non-desk workers more closely to their employer. It estimates that 80% of the global working population does not sit at a desk, the equivalent of 2.7 billion employees, yet only 1% of software solutions are designed with these workers in mind. This creates a digital divide where deskless workers can feel disconnected from the rest of the workforce.
The platform combines cloud computing power with a mobile-first approach, meaning workers can access employer communications even in environments where data reception is unstable such as production halls or shop floors. The app integrates seamlessly into existing IT systems, making it easy to adopt. The company has attracted significant investor interest, raising more than $45 million.
Flip is now rolling out to multiple countries as a Software-as-a-Service model, marketed via direct communication, corporate workshops and digital marketing. It has already achieved partnerships with household names such as Porsche, Mahle and McDonald’s. Flip has a 95% usage rate, boosting employee engagement, productivity, and workers’ identification with their employer.
OpenBlend
OpenBlend is designed to support one-to-one conversations that include performance, wellbeing, motivation and development, encouraging regular and broad conversations with employees on an individual level. They can recognise and discuss their own personal Motivators and performance goals, and by capturing these drivers, managers can have better conversations that make a positive difference.
The company has innovated its product over the last year to launch two new modules: Develop and Lightbulb. Develop is designed to identify employees’ unique development needs and create personalised career plans; Lightbulb provides managers and employees with bite-sized learning content and just-in-time coaching tips. Together, these give managers and employees the confidence and capabilities they need to discuss the issues that matter.
Customer feedback is extremely positive: clients report a “brilliant” account management experience and that OpenBlend works with them in a highly collaborative way. OpenBlend has helped some customers move from an outdated, once-a-year performance management process to a regular feedback culture where employees can talk about their wellbeing and motivations. This in turn has increased employee engagement and retention.
Talos360
The majority of employers believe that a good onboarding experience is critical in influencing a new employee’s decision to stay at a company. However, according to Indeed, only 11% of employees take part in a thorough onboarding programme, while two-thirds of new hires receive little or no pre-boarding experience of a company. Talos wanted to create an onboarding suite where clients could pick and choose the modules they required that would help them fulfil their hiring goals while improving the overarching candidate journey.
In 2024 it integrated this onboarding platform into its applicant tracking system, offering features including: an offer details module; an onboarding microsite where clients can share vital information to candidates; onboarding dashboards; reference checking; and integration with background screening tools such as TrustID. The platform also integrates with broader HR systems to ensure data is transferred seamlessly from one platform to another. Clients save money because they don’t need to purchase an additional onboarding system outside of their ATS.
Clients report a number of significant benefits, including that it is a single source of the truth, information is easily shareable with candidates, and there is more consistency to the process. They are better able to promote their employer value proposition and brand via onboarding microsites, and documents are easier and more secure to process. One retailer said: ‘“Talos360 helps us recruit in alignment with our culture and values, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for us thanks to their constant ATS innovation.”
YuLife
Companies face a multitude of challenges in terms of how they present employee benefits. Employees are often disengaged leading to high turnover; there are rising concerns around health and wellbeing; they want to foster a positive workplace culture and also deliver cost-effective benefits at the same time. To respond to these challenges, YuLife created a comprehensive platform that combines life insurance with a wellbeing app.
YuLife gamifies health and wellness, making healthy activities such as walking and cycling fun and engaging. Employees can compete in challenges, earn badges, and redeem YuCoin, a virtual currency. In addition, the platform offers access to wellness resources such as mindfulness and meditation programmes, fitness trafficking and personalised health recommendations. As part of their insurance they can access virtual GP services and mental health support. Employers receive data-driven insights so they can see the impact of their benefits programmes.
Customers report significant increases in employee engagement, with higher levels of activity and involvement in wellness programmes. Employees feel more valued and supported, helping businesses to foster a more inclusive and positive workplace culture. Absenteeism is reduced and there are clear cost savings through reduced healthcare costs and improved productivity. One customer said that having all of the products and services in one place “shows impact was something that we’ve never been able to achieve before”.
Zest Technology
Although the cost-of-living crisis has hit employees hard, three in 10 businesses have been unable to raise salaries in line with inflation. This means employees place a greater emphasis on the total value of their benefits package, and this is one of the key things they look for in a job. Via by Zest Technology helps employers to deliver targeted communications and overcome the disconnect between what workers want from a benefits platform and how businesses deliver it.
The platform works seamlessly with both existing and new benefits packages and can be configured within days to meet the unique needs and preferences of individual employees. Its codeless platform reduces the complexity of administering benefits, allowing employers to implement and update benefits swiftly without the need for developer involvement. Employers can target messages and prompts to employees based on demographics such as age, gender and team, ensuring the right benefits reach the right employees at the right time.
Zest Marketplace, launched in 2024, offers enhanced accessibility, flexibility and personalisation, allowing employers to expand their benefits even further to better align with their values and their employees’ needs. Typically, Zest platform users achieve 80-90% engagement, compared to 40-50% engagement for most benefits platforms. Zest estimates it has saved clients around £6.5m in employer National Insurance contributions thanks to higher attraction and retention levels. Clients describe the platform as user-friendly and flexible.
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