Novated leasing has traditionally been associated with large employers that have thousands of employees and the resources required to establish and promote a salary packaging program.
Digital onboarding and increased market awareness have changed that model, opening novated leasing up to be a universal benefit—seamlessly catering to small-to-medium enterprises and large corporate employers alike.
Bevan Guest, CEO at Novated Lease Australia, said the company was established four years ago around a technology platform designed to simplify the process of onboarding both employers and employees.
While this approach initially allowed the business to service employers that historically may have been too small to attract significant attention from traditional providers, its scalability has proven just as transformative for large corporate entities looking to cut administrative red tape. Ultimately, it has created a solution built for everyone.
“Our technology enables us to onboard hundreds of employers every month.”
Guest said this agility had helped expand access to parts of the market he believes had previously received comparatively little attention, while also modernising the experience for larger enterprise clients.
“It’s really facilitated access to the SME market, which was previously underserved and underpenetrated.”
For Fleet Managers, Procurement Managers, and HR teams within organisations of any size, that potentially changes the calculation around offering novated leasing.
Implementing a salary packaging arrangement once required significant administration, in-person employee education, and ongoing interaction between the employer and provider. Digital systems can automate much of that process and reduce the amount of internal involvement required, whether a company has 10 employees or 10,000.
From workplace presentations to digital journeys
Employee engagement has also changed considerably.
Historically, novated leasing providers often relied heavily on workplace information sessions and face-to-face education to explain what was already a relatively complicated financial product.
Those traditional methods still have a role, but Guest said digital communication now performs most of the work.
Novated Lease Australia uses online customer journeys, novated lease calculators, employee and employer portals, a driver app, and digital education to allow employees to research novated leasing at their own pace.
That approach has become increasingly relevant as employees work across offices, homes, and geographically dispersed locations.
It also allows an employer to make novated leasing available without necessarily having to organise repeated workplace information sessions.
However, Guest said removing people entirely from the process was not the objective.
For many employees, acquiring a vehicle remains one of their largest financial decisions, and many still want to speak with a person before committing.
“Some of them will go through a digital journey. Some of them want the human in the loop.”
That combination of self-service technology and access to personal support is becoming increasingly important as novated leasing reaches employees who may never previously have considered the product.
Employees still need to understand the real cost
Making novated leasing easier to access does not necessarily make the product itself easier to understand.
Employees comparing a lease with buying a vehicle outright or using traditional finance need to consider more than the repayment on the vehicle.
Registration, insurance, servicing, tyres, and other running costs all contribute to the total cost of operating a car.
Guest said many motorists do not regularly calculate those costs because the bills arrive at different times throughout the year.
Under a novated lease, bringing those expenses together can make the real cost of running the vehicle more visible.
“When you bundle it together, they actually understand what the total cost of motoring is.”
That budgeting element may also be becoming more important as household expenses increase.
Guest said customers can initially be attracted to novated leasing by the potential tax savings, particularly when considering an eligible electric vehicle, but often value the predictability of their vehicle expenses once they are in the program.
A bigger potential employee market
The growth of digital onboarding could have implications beyond the novated leasing industry itself.
Because employers of any size can now introduce a program without significant administrative overhead, millions of employees—from grassroots SMEs to Australia’s largest corporations—can easily access novated leasing.
That creates another pathway into new vehicles, including EVs, while also giving businesses an attractive employee benefit they can offer without operating their own vehicle fleet.
It does not remove the need for employers to assess providers carefully.
Customer service, technology, employee education, payroll integration, and administration remain important considerations when establishing a program.
But technology is reducing one of the traditional barriers: scale.
Whether you are a smaller employer that previously assumed novated leasing was out of reach, or a major corporation seeking a modernised, zero-friction rollout, the market has evolved to work for everyone.
