Employment Hero Launches Health Insurance, Powered by Kota

Today, we're announcing that health insurance is now available directly within Employment Hero, powered by Kota's embedded insurance infrastructure. For the thousands of UK SMEs already using Employment Hero to manage HR and payroll, this means they can offer health cover to their teams without leaving the platform they use every day.

It's a milestone we're really proud of, and it feels like an important moment to share why we believe benefits belong inside payroll - and why this matters now more than ever.

Why now

There's a shift happening in how people choose where to work. New research from Employment Hero shows that 53% of UK workers say better benefits would be a factor in changing jobs - making it the third most common reason people move roles, just behind pay rises (63%) and flexible hours. It's a trend that's been dubbed 'benefitsmaxxing': employees strategically evaluating the total value of their employment package, not just the headline salary.

The context makes this even more significant. Wage growth across UK SMEs reached 3.6% in January 2026, based on Employment Hero's analysis of over 117,000 employee records. That's only marginally above inflation. With rising National Insurance Contributions squeezing budgets further, consistent pay rises simply aren't sustainable for many businesses. Benefits have become one of the most practical levers employers have to attract and retain people - and employees know it.

The cost of getting this wrong is real. Employment Hero's research shows 45% of UK businesses are now spending more on recruitment than in previous years. Losing good people is expensive, and for smaller businesses operating on tighter margins, it can be devastating.

The gap we're trying to close

Large employers have dedicated HR teams, broker relationships, and the scale to negotiate competitive benefits packages. Small and mid-sized businesses typically don't. They're stuck with manual processes, fragmented providers, and limited buying power - which means the businesses that most need to compete on benefits are often the least equipped to do so.

This is the problem we built Kota to solve. Since launching in 2023, we've brought health insurance, pensions, and flexible allowances together in one platform, with simple enrolment and management that doesn't require a dedicated HR team. Over 50,000 employees now access their benefits through Kota, and the feedback we hear most consistently is that it just works - for employers and their teams.

But we've always believed that the best employee experience is one where benefits are woven into the systems people already use. That's why embedded infrastructure is core to what we do.

What this partnership means in practice

With Kota now live inside Employment Hero, SMEs can offer health cover from a range of popular providers - with enrolment and management handled seamlessly within the platform they already run payroll and HR through. No manual spreadsheets, no disjointed experience for employees.

This is what we mean when we talk about embedded benefits. At a minimum, employees expect easy enrolment and management of their benefits. They shouldn't have to navigate five different portals to understand what they're entitled to. By embedding Kota directly into Employment Hero, we're removing that friction and helping smaller businesses compete more effectively in the talent market.

Looking ahead

The 'benefitsmaxxing' trend isn't going away. As cost-of-living pressures persist and employees become more sophisticated about evaluating offers holistically, benefits will only grow in importance. The businesses that adapt - by making competitive benefits accessible and easy to manage - will have a meaningful edge.

What excites me most about this partnership is the scale of the opportunity. Employment Hero serves over 350,000 businesses globally, and their mission to make employment easier aligns perfectly with what we're building at Kota. Together, we can bring enterprise-grade benefits to businesses that have never had access to them before.

The era of benefits as an afterthought is over. For companies that want to attract and keep great people, it's time to treat benefits as a core part of the proposition.

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Kota is the benefits infrastructure platform helping modern businesses offer health insurance, pensions, and flexible allowances - without the complexity. Learn more about our embedded insurance solution at kota.io/embed.

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