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People Mentality Inc has been featuring a series of HR Tech partners to share more about their background stories as well as how users can benefit from engaging them. No tool is perfect, but every one of them is unique in their own way which is where the value lies for the various users. Find the best tools that suit your needs, mix and match based on your context and grow your business from there!
In this week’s issue of People Mentality HR Tech Feature, we are excited to have with us Chris Teo, co-founder and CEO of Mednefits to share his thoughts on the employee benefits tool. Find out more about the story of Mednefits and how users can benefit from this HR Tech app.
Interview Summary
Sam: What was the spark that led to the start of Mednefits?
Chris: While working in AXA, I found a huge problem that SMEs are facing. They want to provide employee benefits but there was not an affordable option in the market.
Traditional insurance would require SME to take up hospital insurance in order to take up outpatient coverage. A lot of SMEs are unable to afford $500 per employee thus they turn into reimbursement. Thus we started Mednefits to provide affordable healthcare for employees.
Sam: How did the name Mednefits come about?
Chris: Actually it was simply the short form for medical benefits. Simply the affordable, simple, humanised solution that we wanted to provide for this underserved market.
Sam: If you could turn back time, what would be one thing that you would have done differently?
Chris: Of all the things we would have done differently, one of the most important is hiring our tech team in-house earlier. Fundamentally, without an in-house tech team, goals are not aligned with an outsourced tech provider. Without design, product & tech team in-house, feedback/design would not be developed at the rate we have it now. Essentially, we could have never achieved the lean startup methodology to propel us to our current growth.
Sam: What kept you going when things got tough?
Chris: At the end of the day, it is all about solving the big problem. Corporate healthcare hasn’t changed in 30years, the solution has always been the cookie-cutter kind. We get a boost in energy every time we manage to solve one customer onboard the Mednefits platform. it is simply a validation of the solution for the market.
Sam: What are the top 3 features of the platform?
Chris: Affordable quality healthcare, real-time analytics, personalised program for the employees
Sam: Who would you recommend to use this tool?
Chris: SME owners/HR professional looking to provide a different corporate healthcare experience for their key talents. The kind of experience that we would want for us and our loved ones.
Sam: Is there anything you would like to say to HR practitioners out there?
Chris: Corporate healthcare benefits is a massive investment that most companies do not have a handle on. With cost increasing every year, it eats into employees budget and not forgetting company’s profits. Let’s work together to restart this whole experience. Let’s work together to redesign the whole employee healthcare experience. Let’s work together to get the corporate healthcare experience that we want for ourselves and our loved ones.
Sam: Where can people find out more if they are interested?
Chris: Do reach out to us at www.mednefits.com. Or they can also reach out to us via our social media platform.
Closing thoughts
What I love about the Mednefits story is really about the intent to humanise this technology. Very often, we deploy technology and focus on the efficiency aspect while neglecting what we are really delivering – the impact on people’s lives. By reinventing the employee benefits space to make it affordable yet being able to deliver a great experience, that really stands out for me.
We have come to the end of this week’s People Mentality HR Tech Feature on Mednefits. Stay tuned for the next one!
Together we can create a better workplace for tomorrow!
People Mentality Inc is a HR Consultancy firm in Singapore. Our clients include Pfizer, Great Eastern, Accenture, DHL, Samsung, Coca Cola, Keppel, Loreal, Under Armour and more. We netted the HR Rising Star 2016 award and APAC Top 10 HR & Employer Branding Consultant 2020.
