Don't Call Them Benefits

They met as students in university classrooms and went on to become co-founders of an ambitious startup. After graduating from Bocconi, Giorgio Seveso and Luca Milesi chose to rewrite the rules of corporate welfare, focusing on technology to simplify programs and increase employee engagement. In just a few years, more than €20 million in services have been provided, and the company has raised over €9 million in two rounds.

What are the new needs of personnel?

Giorgio Seveso: For employees, corporate welfare is no longer an ancillary benefit: it supports purchasing power and is a true supplement to the salary package. Increased spending power is coupled with increasing personalization of welfare plans. We live in an era where various generations coexist within companies, each having very different needs, so the welfare plan must adapt to that.

How do companies get ready?

Luca Milesi: Companies must make sure to have knowledge of the two axes of corporate welfare development: analyzing the environment around individuals, to enable them to achieve the celebrated work-life balance, and listening to their own people, by using surveys, focus groups and personal interviews to understand the needs and develop an appropriate welfare plan for the workforce. Some companies can expand their offerings with psychological support, while others may be more suited to promoting sports activities.

What's the winning mix?

Luca Milesi: There's no one-size-fits-all solution; you have to know how to personalize. A strategic welfare plan defines concrete tools that can be translated into a very broad kind of usability for individuals, who can use their welfare credits for real needs. But a corporate welfare plan must take the company's strategic objective into account because it has an impact on performance and profitability. The effect is direct on talent management: corporate welfare affects turnover and retention rates; it mitigates quiet quitting, because people feel more engaged in the company's operations.

How does Tundr navigate this scenario?

Giorgio Seveso: Tundr draws on the experience of two fresh university graduates who found themselves in a job market where companies offered welfare plans alongside salary packages. We thought that world was overly complex, and wanted to facilitate the use of these welfare initiatives through digitalization. We make company benefits accessible and easy to deliver, by building an ecosystem where welfare is an integral part of the salary and becomes a reason for jobseekers to choose one company over another.

Where did you start?

Luca Milesi: From what most distinguishes us: technology. We were the first to bring a payment card to the industry that can be flexibly tailored to the needs of individuals and businesses. We've created a welfare infrastructure that allows employers to load credits that employees can use with a standard card. We started with fringe benefits, with a card that provides access to over 800 brands at 80,000 points of sale without having to go through the traditional platform to download the voucher.

What's been the response of business companies to your solution?

Giorgio Seveso: We work with over 500 firms, from micro-businesses with 4-5 employees to multinational groups and listed companies. The feedback we get is the same: we enable welfare programs that are understandable, digital, effective and sustainable. Having tools that are very easy to use also leads to more accessible solutions, with higher engagement and better data collection. Analytics allows a company to be more precise in assessing the impact of a welfare plan and identify what needs to be improved.

How do you see the future of the sector?

Giorgio Seveso: We question ourselves every day. Companies are increasingly becoming brands whose mission is to attract talent, and corporate welfare helps retain young people. At Tundr, we want to continue democratizing benefits, adding modules that enable us to complement traditional vouchers with other initiatives that go beyond the mere provision of a wallet, things like daycare, an in-office gym and financial education.