Agritech member Lockton specialises in helping businesses attract and retain the best talent by advising on and implementing Employee Benefit Solutions across New Zealand and internationally.
Lockton believes that, for agritech businesses, the formula can be relatively straightforward: when your people thrive, your business thrives.
That’s why agritech businesses, as they grow and scale, need solutions that balance talent attraction and retention, cost efficiency, and meaningful support for team wellbeing.
Delivering employee benefits with impact – maintaining your competitive advantage
A well-appreciated and utilised employee benefits programme is not only good for your people; it is also a competitive advantage. It can help you hire, retain, and engage the best talent – all of which meaningfully supports your growth ambitions.
The loss of key people, and the time required to hire the right people, are often cited as critical business challenges and growth-limiting risks.
Employee benefits as a strategic risk management tool
Over the past 12 months, through its interactions with clients and business leaders across New Zealand, Lockton People Solutions has observed a significant shift in how organisations are approaching employee benefits. Lockton believes these interactions and insights are of real value to agritech members that are growing and rely on their people to drive success and results.
While People and HR teams have historically led purchasing and placement decisions, there is a trend towards greater involvement from senior executives including CEOs, COOs, and particularly CFOs when shaping new employee benefits programmes.
This change reflects a broader strategic shift: employee benefits are now recognised not only as employee wellbeing initiatives, but also as a core risk-management strategy that can help support workforce stability and mitigate business continuity risk.
What is driving this change?
Two key forces are converging:
1. A tighter labour market
Hiring has become more costly and time-consuming. Replacing or backfilling skilled roles takes longer, amplifying the business impact of employee absence.
2. Rising operational risk due to increased absence
Higher absence rates are placing pressure on organisations, especially those already running at capacity.
This challenge is even more apparent across regional New Zealand, where attracting talent is harder, teams are smaller, and individual roles carry broader responsibilities.
In this context, workforce management is no longer simply an HR priority; it has also become an enterprise risk issue, with direct implications for revenue, reputation, and service performance.
This is driving organisations to view employee benefits differently: as practical tools to reduce downtime, accelerate access to care, and support faster, safer return-to-work outcomes.
But even the best employee benefits programme can only deliver value if employees understand it, trust it, and use it.
Which brings us to the next challenge.
Delivering employee benefits with impact
A well-designed employee benefits plan on paper does not guarantee strong outcomes in practice.
If employees are unaware of the support available, or unsure how to access it, the organisation may never realise the return on its investment.
Low utilisation can also create competitive risk, as organisations that activate their benefits programmes effectively are better positioned to retain key talent and safeguard business continuity.
Communication is the critical enabler
In Lockton’s experience, communication is often the single most significant factor in determining the effectiveness of an employee benefits programme.
When communication is infrequent, overly detailed, or generic, employees can miss key information or disengage altogether.
However, when employees clearly understand what is available and can access it easily, they are far more likely to seek help early.
This can lead to shorter periods away from work, improved workforce reliability, and reduced business continuity risk.
Making the most of available services
A “set and forget” approach is another common reason employee benefits programmes underperform.
Once a programme is launched, ongoing activation is essential. Without it, employees may not make full use of the benefits provided, and your business may not realise the full value of its programme.
In recent years, New Zealand health and life insurers have steadily added more practical support services to their products, such as early-intervention pathways, GP access, mental health support, and everyday wellbeing resources.
These additional services have the potential to materially improve outcomes, but their value is realised only when employees are aware of them and feel supported and confident in using them.
Leaders can dramatically improve utilisation by ensuring a clear and simple user experience.
This means ensuring employees know exactly where to find support, giving managers the tools to guide people towards help early, and removing unnecessary steps that slow down or complicate the process.
When access feels intuitive and straightforward, employee benefits services can become part of how the organisation works rather than an optional extra. The benefits then flow through to workforce stability and service continuity.
Measurement that guides better decisions
Employee benefits programmes remain effective only when they are aligned with both employee needs and organisational priorities.
To achieve this, leaders need a steady flow of insight—not just once a year, but consistently over time.
This means understanding how employees are using the programme, how they feel about the support available to them, and what impact the benefits are having on absence, return-to-work outcomes, and overall workforce stability.
Using this information to adjust programme design, improve communication, and focus investment on the benefits with the greatest impact can help ensure employee benefits become a reliable and effective element of the organisation’s broader risk-management framework.
The strategic takeaway
The expanding involvement of senior leadership in the decision-making process reflects the reality that an effective employee benefits programme is one of the most underutilised, yet powerful, risk-management tools available to organisations.
When well designed, clearly communicated, and integrated into everyday operations, employee benefits programmes have the potential to significantly strengthen workforce stability and support consistent service delivery.
If you would like to explore how Lockton can support your organisation in achieving its risk-management objectives through an effective employee benefits programme, please get in touch.
For Queries
Contact Niall Martin at Lockton.
Niall Martin
Head of People Solutions NZ
Lockton Companies NZ Limited Partnership
Phone: +64 21 909 224
Email: Niall.Martin@lockton.com