Rim Zerhouni and Alyssa Emmungil are the founders of Happypal. Happypal is a digital platform that modernizes works councils, helping employees and company directors to set up a personalized, ultra-modern benefits program in just a few clicks. We caught up with Rim to find out more.
Rim discovered the world of employee benefits, quality of working life and its management after standing for election to the Comité Social d'Entreprise. At the same time, her partner Alyssa was working for a company with a well-established and generous CSE.
" I discovered that my role was time-consuming and no longer in line with employees' expectations. Alyssa, for her part, was the beneficiary of a good CSE, but she quickly discovered that it was complicated to access all the benefits. She often found herself with drawers full of gift and vacation vouchers. It was this dual experience, plus our shared desire to build a product that solves a market asymmetry related to wellbeing, that prompted us to launch. We wanted to participate in the digitization of this market and offer a real product that would stand out, not just for companies, but above all for the end-user."
The challenge now was to create a product that met the particular needs of the French market, where it is often volunteers concerned with the well-being of their colleagues who find themselves in these positions. All this, while modernizing the overall approach of the CSE.
" Our mission is twofold: the product is sold to the company, but the end user is the employee who uses the application. We need to simplify, streamline and modernize access to all company benefits.
By proposing a product which, in terms of interface, enables any company, whatever its size and whatever its level of digital maturity, to offer a plug and play solution and create a personalized benefits program that reflects its image and that of all its employees ".
The subject of benefits is of prime importance. No more cinema tickets or entry to the Parc Astérix, HappyPal wants to go further to ensure that these benefits bring value to the employee.
" An advantage can simply be a negotiated discount, a subsidy, an event to attend, collective or individual benefits... All these advantages to which we are entitled in a company often lack visibility and clarity. Ultimately, our vision is for users to develop the reflex to use benefits that are in line with their consumption habits."
For a market estimated at over 40 billion euros, it's a shame to see the lack of visibility for employees. In this sense, HappyPal's solution meets a dual objective: to be the most visible and easy-to-use platform, and to offer and negotiate new benefits.
" We enable companies to align their benefits programs, with their corporate culture, their CSR policy, and their ambitions, we really have a vocation to become a well-being companion for everyone."
The launch of HappyPal in the middle of a confinement immediately prompted Rim and Alyssa to rethink the digitalization of their product and service even further.
" All the trade shows for elected representatives, CSE HR, etc. were cancelled. So we organized the first virtual fair dedicated to elected representatives and QWL (quality of life at work) issues, CSE online, which was a great success. The result was a community of over 1,500 newsletter subscribers. Hundreds of people are on our Slack and Facebook groups, exchanging ideas on this topic. One question kept coming up. "But what can I offer my employees in these conditions?
At the time, we played an advisory role, explaining that there were other ways of improving employee well-being besides financing cinema tickets: meditation, e-learning, services to simplify daily life."
This spectacular launch has enabled them to quickly exceed their initial target of 10,000 employees in the first year, with over 100,000 employees already using the platform!
" Our ambitions are now to triple the number of users over the next twelve months and then expand internationally."
To discover HappyPal click here.
