Pluxee moves beyond meal coupons to include wellness, childcare benefits

MUMBAI: Employee benefits player Pluxee, formerly known as Sodexo Benefits & Rewards, has moved beyond its traditional meal coupons to include wellness programmes, childcare and ESG vouchers. The French multinational company aims to introduce in India services that are available in other markets, reflecting a broader shift in employee benefits towards more diverse and socially responsible options.
“Today in India, Pluxee is offering 20 different benefits with meal benefits at the centre of the offer.We see new needs from our clients and their employees, so we have seen a clear acceleration of this multi-benefit trend, which started earlier in other countries,” Pluxee CEO Aurelien Sonet told TOI in an interview.
Sonet said that in Europe, in countries like Belgium, the company offers Pluxee Eco that can be used only for purchases that support sustainable development and consumption that is environmentally responsible. Sodexo, spun off its employee benefits business, which was renamed as Pluxee in 2023. According to Sonet, India is among the top 10 markets for Pluxee globally and is likely to move into the top five soon. “There are many tailwinds. The importance of employees for organisations is getting bigger. Because of the competition for talent, companies are looking to retain employees by protecting their purchasing power and look after their health and well-being,” said Sonet. Globally, Pluxee has 500,000 clients, 36 million consumers and 1.7 million merchants. In India alone, the company has over 3.5 million consumers across 1,800 towns.

Pluxee has invested in UK HR tech company The Happiness Index and uses its services to augment its core business. “According to the Happiness Index Survey, during and after Covid, employees were highly engaged but surprisingly there as a ‘big resignation’ trend. Employees were unhappy and suffering a sense of disconnect,” said Sonet. He added that the key insight was that high engagement did not necessarily translate to employee benefits.
“The needs of employees are getting more and more individual and from a benefits provider standpoint, we need to personalise more and more offers to our consumers to be relevant to them. In that sense, our investments in data and artificial intelligence are critical,” said Sonet. According to Sonet, globally the trend is return-to-office. “What we see again in all geographies is that people are more and more back to the office, and they enjoy having lunch together. It’s so important for humanity,” said Sonet.
In India, besides widening the range of products, Pluxee is targeting small & medium enterprises in addition to large scale organisations. The company is leveraging digital tools and platforms to efficiently onboard both merchants and the SME employers.