Microsoft scales personalized wellness benefit across the globe

In recent years Microsoft made a pivotal shift to expand its wellness program beyond physical fitness. A core part of the shift was the adoption of a three-pillar wellness framework that focuses on supporting employees' mental, emotional, and financial health in addition to their physical health. While Microsoft had implemented a platform solution that facilitated the reimbursement of up to $800 in health-related expenses for each full-time employee in the United States per year in 2021, the reimbursement vendor announced they were sunsetting their platform.

The company partnered with Forma to offer an innovative, best-in-class solution. Microsoft set out to customize a benefit to support employee wellness beyond physical health and support the well-being of the entire family. The wellness reimbursement needed to scale globally and be equitable for 220,000+ employees worldwide. In addition, the program needed to be tax compliant and integrated into payroll systems in 100 countries. Centralizing the wellness benefit platform would create efficiencies while decentralizing market dependencies worldwide.  

In January 2022, Microsoft launched Forma which enables the company to efficiently reimburse approved expenses related to employees’ wellness. This rollout was accompanied by an increase in the reimbursement limit from $800 to $1500 per year in the United States. Appropriate equivalencies were implemented globally depending on market factors, which helped stir interest in the new solution, referred to internally as Perks+.

Read the case study here.