There has been a profound shift in the employee benefits market in recent years, from products and policies that are predominantly designed to kick in when employees are ill, injured or signed off sick, to ones that focus instead on supporting good health and improving employee wellbeing, often addressing delicate personal conditions that might not lead to clinical PMI interventions but that could still have a huge influence on the employee’s day-to-day life.
Fintech start-up Peppy, which launched in 2018, sits squarely in this emerging area, and has grown rapidly over the past few years, making the most of specific gaps in this burgeoning health and wellbeing market.
Peppy’s CEO and co-founder Dr Mridula Pore says the service it offers is designed to support employees through health issues faced at particular life stages. Its initial support services were aimed new parents. This was quickly followed by menopause support, and later fertility and specialist men’s health services.
Pore says: “What Peppy is trying to do is bridge the gap between traditional healthcare, which tends to focus on clinical diagnoses, where medical or surgical intervention may be required, and these health episodes.
“In the vast majority of cases new parents, those looking to start a family or women going through the menopause are not ill, but they may need some additional help with their health at these times.”
When launching the company with her two co-founders, Pore explains that the decision was made early on to offer this as a workplace employee benefit, rather than direct to consumers, with the cost borne by the employer, rather than the employee.
“The products have been designed to complement and supplement primary healthcare services, like the NHS as well as traditional employee benefits like private medical insurance and cash plans.
“When we were looking at these areas of healthcare it became clear that
supporting people is not only good for that individual and their family, it is also good for their employers.
“We are all living and working for longer and many employers are looking to build a sustainable multi-generational workforce.
“Many employees will go through these at least one of these stages at some point. These can be significant episodes for individuals that can often lead to them making big decisions not only about their life, but about their work and working hours. It is clearly in the interests of employers to offer proper support around these issues.”
For example, she points out that one in four women going through the menopause will consider leaving the workplace completely. While not all will eventually do so, Pore points out that without support women facing this challenge may not be going for promotion or may look to change their working hours. For employers, this can be a key staff retention issue.
She adds: “We did some research recently around fertility and found that almost 60 per cent of people having fertility treatment don’t mention it at work. This can lead to a huge amount of stress. And almost a quarter of those having this treatment lie to a colleague or manager to attend a fertility appointment.”
Offering targeted services can provide a real benefit to employees at these times, she says. Members can access services via a mobile app. This allows them to speak in confidence to a range of specialists in these areas. This can be via video or phone calls, and this digital platform also hosts a range of information and live ‘events’ on topics germane to these key areas of focus. Where necessary specialist nurses and counsellors can signpost people to appropriate treatment and medical services.
This approach is one that appears to be proving popular with both employees and employers, given Peppy’s rapid growth. Over the past 12 months the company has seen the number of users increase by 1,400 per cent and its revenues increase by 8 per cent. It has also seen a 500 per cent increase in the number of staff it employers over this period.
Pore says that one of the key drivers behind its success is marrying technological innovation with human interaction. This was one of the factors that led to the company being named as Best Fintech Health & Wellbeing Innovated in Corporate Adviser awards at the end of last year.
A panel of leading advisers involved in the judging process praised the way that Peppy’s services were built on human interactions allowing one-to-one consultations with qualified specialists.
Pore says the company sees this as a key differentiator in the market. “Technology is obviously important. We see it as a way of being able to deliver our services in a very user-centric way — so people can access the range of support available when it suits them, not when it suits the health professional.
As she points out, many users are time poor, and may be juggling long working hours or shift work which can
mean they do not prioritise health and wellbeing. Being able to contact specialists out of normal working hours can be an important benefit.
Bu the main USP is the specialists they employ. “These are trusted healthcare professionals, registered nurses and counsellors, that specialise and have worked for many years in these particular areas.
“People want access too trusted advice and information. This is what we are offering.”
To date Pore says Peppy is primarily being used by larger employers across a broad range of sectors, including professional services, law firms, construction, retail, infrastructure and the public sector.
Within these businesses Pore says services are offered to C-suite executives as well as those operating on the shop or factory floor. In some cases the services is offered alongside PMI products, but the vast majority of users don’t have access to a private medical plan.
Pore describes ambitious growth plans for the company and which is looking to extend their footprint to medium- and smaller- sized companies.
Consultants and corporate advisers have played a part in getting this service in front of employers. But Pore says it is often feedback from employers themselves that have helped “mushroom” growth within certain sectors. Pore is less forthcoming on the costing structure of her company’s product however. This depends she says on the size of the organisation and number of users. Exact fee levels will be discussed on an individual basis she adds.
Prior to setting up Peppy, Pore earned extensive experience working across different parts of the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry. This included commercial roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and working for the healthcare practice of management consultants McKinsey. This also includes a number of service redesign projects for the NHS.
She met her co-founders, Max Landry, an e-commerce entrepreneur and Evans Harris, a former PriceWaterhouseCoopers accountant, while working at another healthtech start-up.
She said the three were have very different backgrounds, but these have all helped shaped Peppy. Landy has set up a number of business before, including The Conversation, a partnership between academic researchers in Universities and journalists to get more evidence-based expert perspectives out into the public realm.
She says this has parallels with Peppy’s strategy of employing specialist healthcare professionals.
“I’ve seen healthcare from lots of different angles and knew that there are some structural issues in the industry. We’ve got an ageing population and the current model of delivering healthcare simply isn’t sustainable. Digital has a role to play in making this happen. We recognised there was a gap in the market and have tried to offer a service that meets employers and employee needs.”
She says that in many ways they company has benefited from launching at a time when there has been far more of a focus on employee wellbeing as a result of the pandemic, and when a more frank public conversation starting around issues like the menopause.
“I think we started to see this happen a few years ago with the debate around mental health. There have been a number of campaigns to open up conversations about this issue and to acknowledge how many people will suffer from conditions like depression and anxiety at some point in their lives.”
She says these aren’t just campaigns spearheaded by charities and celebrities. They have had a very real effect on how businesses and HR teams approach staff health and wellbeing.
“Employers are getting a lot more comfortable discussing some of these more sensitive topics. And as they start to talk about them their teams also start to open up and they can then see the scale of just how widespread some of these problems are. This enable a better dialogue between business leaders, HR teams and the rest of the organisation.”
“I think we’ve seen this sort of process starting to happen to when it comes to menopause. Previously this might have been an issue that was rarely discussed in the workplace but this was starting to change. We were fortunately to launch at a time when these conversations were starting to open up.”
There are also parallels to the men’s health options offered by Peppy. These have a more general focus than the women’s health options, covering a range of issues from sexual health and genital-urinary issues to mental health and cardio-vascular issues, particularly in middle age.
“I think it is mainly about creating a safe space that can be completely private to raise some of these issues. our data shows that men aged 16 to 60 are 32 per cent less likely to see a GPs than women. As a result health issues can go undetected and this can lead for more complicated problems at a later stage. So again is an issue for employers, as well as the employee.”
Covid she says has not fundamentally changed the employee benefits sector, but it has accelerated many of the trends that were already happening, particularly in relation to digital service and technology.
“Prior to this many people perhaps wouldn’t want a video consultation with their GPs, or a counsellor. But with many primary healthcare services closing to face-to-face consultation during the lockdowns more firms have offered these services and more people have used them.
“Increasingly this is becoming the default option. People may have a remote consultation initially with those that need it then being referred to face-to-face services.
“There will always be a proportion of users and patients who need to see someone in person. But for a large portion of customers, particularly in the areas we are looking at this may not be the case.”
Covid has also accelerated the move towards hybrid working patterns, as well highlighting the importance of diversity, inclusion and equity across all areas of the business, including benefit structure.
“Questions have to be asked about whether benefits are suitable and meeting the needs of all segments of the workforce. This includes issues about whether people are working from home, in a field office or in the head office.”
There are also she points out issues of gender, as well as age and ethnicity. . Traditional PMI benefits may pay for treatment for a sport injury but may not have offering cover for conditions or complications arising from childbirth or menopause. They question is at least being asked now about inclusion and equity and ensuring benefits packages better meet the make-up of a particular workforce.
She adds: “I think what the pandemic did was suddenly give people permission to have a lot of these conversations. It accelerated these trends and I think Peppy have been in a good position to benefit from these wider shifts in society and the workplace.”
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