5 Reasons Your Employees Aren’t Using Their Meal Benefits and How to Fix It

UPI transactions in April 2026 crossed ₹22.35 billion in the country, showing how much employees are expecting convenient payment solutions via apps when buying food and groceries," reported The Economic Times.

Quick reads

• Employees opt out of the benefits if they find them confining, outdated, or cumbersome to apply in their lives.
• Meal cards that can be used on platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, and ONDC prove to be more popular among the employees.
• Poor onboarding, payment hassles, and the lack of merchant acceptance subtly discourage the use of such meal benefits.
• A hybrid working environment has redefined the preferences of the employees, which makes location-based food benefits redundant.
• Effective communication and digital convenience transform meal benefits into valuable incentives for the employees.

There is something quietly frustrating about offering a benefit that nobody uses.

You have done the work. You have negotiated the vendor contract, set up the disbursement process, and added the perk to the offer letter. And yet, when you glance at the utilisation reports three months later, the numbers are underwhelming. Some employees have barely touched the balance. Others don't even seem to know it exists.

If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. HR leaders across mid-size and large organisations in India report consistent underutilisation of structured food benefits, and the consequences are real. Wasted budget, reduced perceived value of your total compensation package, and employees who don't feel their benefits actually work for them.

The good news is that most of these problems are fixable. But before you can fix them, you need to understand what is actually going wrong. Let’s find out! 

Why is my current employee meal benefit not being used much?

When a workplace benefit feels more like a tedious chore than a genuine reward, busy employees will simply walk away and pay out-of-pocket. However, that's not the only reason; there’s more to it. Mentioned below are the ones you should know: 

1. The vendor network is too limited

Employees live, work, and eat across cities with wildly different food ecosystems. If the accepted merchant list only includes a handful of chain restaurants or doesn't cover popular food delivery apps, employees will simply use their own money.

As per NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) guidelines on prepaid instruments, meal benefit cards issued on the RuPay or Visa network are required to adhere to specific merchant category codes (MCCs). However, operators have discretion over which outlets within those codes they onboard. A card that doesn't work on Zomato, Swiggy, or the local thali joint near the office is effectively useless for a large portion of the workforce.

How to fix:

1. Audit your accepted merchants on the list according to your geographical location before deciding on a meal benefit provider.
2. Favour providers that have integration capabilities with Swiggy, Zomato, and ONDC-based apps.
3. Have quarterly assessments of your merchant/vendor panel and follow up with the provider’s account manager.
4. Employees should be able to make requests for merchant inclusion using a basic Google Form sent to HR.

For instance, an employee who is working from Pune will not need a meal card that can be used only in selected outlets in Bengaluru. Instead, a meal card benefit that could be used on apps such as Swiggy, Zomato, or the ONDC network, as well as at nearby grocers, would be adopted much more frequently by employees.

Definition: 

ONDC stands for the Open Digital Commerce Network, which is a platform created by the Government of India under the Department of Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade. ONDC enables standardisation and interoperability of transactions, logistics, and payments on e-commerce platforms and merchants.

As per the McKinsey study on the evolution of food delivery, convenience has become one of the critical aspects determining consumer behaviour today. Consumers have started to value time and effort savings so much that they are willing to pay extra money for them. Employees discontinue meal cards easily when the benefits do not suit their lifestyle and needs.

2. The redemption process is too complicated

Even in cases where employees are aware of the benefit and where the vendors are close by, friction results in the failure to adopt the card. This is because such cards require another PIN or use of POS settings that often fail at the checkout.

According to the  PwC Employee Experience Survey, almost 32% of employees disengage from workplace tools due to usability issues or technical difficulties, showing that even valuable benefits lose traction when access feels complicated. ‘

How to fix:

1. Test out the card on at least five merchants before implementation.
2. Create at least a two-minute tutorial video on how to pay using the card.
3. Create an exclusive customer service line/online chat support facility for the card, excluding other HR-related questions.
4. Clearly explain the differences between paying through tap-to-pay, QR, and online checkout processes.

The onboarding experience of the card itself matters as much as the card's existence. Treat it like a product launch, not an administrative task.

Definition: 
POS (Point-of-Sale) settings are the payment terminal settings that enable prepaid cards, QR payments, NFC tap-and-go solutions, or digital wallets to complete transactions at merchant locations.

3. Employees don't see real value in the benefit

If an employee earns ₹8 lakh per year and is in the 20% tax bracket, the annual tax saving from a well-structured meal card for employees can be between ₹4,000 and ₹13,000 depending on utilisation. That is real money. But if HR has never broken it down that clearly, employees just see "meal card" and assume it's a token perk. Perceived value is a communication problem, not a compensation problem!

For instance, a first-time employee attempting to use a meal card at a café may abandon the benefit entirely if the payment fails twice because the merchant terminal does not support prepaid tap payments. Small friction points like this often create long-term disengagement. 

How to fix:

1. Show the actual in-hand saving in the offer letter or salary slip breakdown. 
2. Share a comparative example: "With this card, you save approximately, say, upto ₹8000/month in tax on food spending you would make anyway."
3. Reinforce the message during appraisal cycles when employees are most financially attentive.

4. HR treats it as a one-time setup, not an ongoing programme

Benefit programmes die quietly when they are treated as infrastructure rather than initiatives. Once the cards are issued and the vendor integration is live, many HR teams move on. There is no ongoing communication, no feedback loop, no attempt to understand why utilisation is low. 

How to fix:

1. Assign a benefits champion within HR who owns the utilisation metric.
2. Establish a monthly review of utilisation, with specific triggers for intervention.
3. Take an anonymous poll every quarter about what is and is not working for the employees.
4. Provide feedback from the utilisation measurement back to employees.

5. Outdated policies ignore the realities of hybrid work 

Traditional food benefits fail to engage modern teams when they are built solely for full-time, on-site office workers. If a corporate meal allowance can only be used at a physical head-office canteen or city-centre lunch spots, remote and hybrid staff are completely left out. This operational disconnect creates an unfair divide, making distributed employees feel like second-class citizens who cannot access their rewards.

According to Microsoft, hybrid work flexibility continues to remain one of the most important workplace expectations globally, making location-bound benefits increasingly ineffective for distributed teams. : 

How to fix:

• Shift towards the digitalisation of the food allowance programme so that it becomes functional when used in neighbourhood supermarkets as well as suburban grocery stores.
• Choose a partner who can integrate itself seamlessly into all major online meal and grocery delivery platforms.
• Review the company policies and update them such that food allowances are acceptable even on work-from-home days.
• Give the employees a corporate meal card that operates on any normal payment platform.

How to launch a successful corporate meal programme?

A shift from the traditional voucher system for providing food to the new digital platform needs to be carried out systematically to ensure data security and high user acceptance. This systematic process needs to be followed by the human resources department to implement a flexible meal card for employees across the organisation:

1. Review existing usage statistics: Retrieve transaction details from your existing payroll providers to pinpoint which areas have lower adoption rates.
2. Find an open-loop partner: Partner with a modern fintech platform that can issue both physical and virtual cards, used everywhere from ATMs to POS terminals.
3. Start a pilot programme: Implement the card in one department only to test functionality and application settings before a full release. 
4. Publish simple instructions: Distribute visual guides to help employees understand how they can check their balance and locate retailers.
5. Integrate with HR systems: Integrate the payment card with the overall HR management system, such as Workday, to automate top-ups.

The complete HR meal benefit checklist

The following is a useful checklist for auditing your food programme and making sure that all operational standards are covered:

1. Merchants’ freedom: Is the advantage applicable in local stores, small eateries, and popular online food delivery apps?
2. Zero reimbursements: Is the entire scheme structured to eliminate the need to upload receipts and submit claims for meal expenses?
3. Mobile access: Does the scheme provide a reliable app for tracking transactions and balances?
4. Hybrid workforce: Are the food perks easy for remote employees to access from anywhere other than big cities?
5. Easy onboarding: Is the guide about food perks provided to each new employee?

Wrapping up

Optimising your company’s rewards is all about closing the gap between corporate intent and employees' actual experience. By stepping back to view the benefits from your employees’ perspective, you will notice areas where changes can be made and improvements gained. This process involves moving past traditional administrative practices to create an environment of equity and freedom.

A great way to make this happen would be by working together with a trusted industry expert such as Pluxee. We will help you overcome merchant restrictions and cumbersome receipt collection through a streamlined digital interface. By upgrading to our modern meal card for employees, you turn a forgotten budget item into a powerful, easy-to-use daily perk that keeps your workforce motivated, valued, and truly engaged.

FAQs

1. How to apply for a meal card?

Getting your card sorted is an absolute breeze since your company’s HR team handles all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. You won't have to fill out any long, painful applications; your workplace simply registers your details directly with the provider during onboarding or a benefits refresh. Once that is done, a digital version pops up instantly on your phone, and a physical card is shipped straight to your desk or home.

2. How does a meal card work?

Think of it exactly like your everyday debit card, just completely dedicated to keeping you fed and fueled. Every month, your employer automatically loads your tax-free food allowance directly onto the card. From there, you just tap it at your local coffee shop, swipe it at the supermarket checkout, or link it to your favourite food delivery apps to pay for your meals without a second thought.

3. What is the limit of a meal card?

The monthly limit is usually set by your employer for your daily lunches and groceries. Your company decides the exact amount that hits your account each month, and you can keep an eye on your remaining balance through a quick glance at the mobile app so you never get caught off guard at the register.