FLEXIBLE BENEFITS
Novartis UK unveils new benefit offering
Novartis UK is offering its 4,000-strong UK workforce a new flexible benefits scheme. Introduced in November 2008, the scheme has been hailed by employees as one of the best HR initiatives to date. Vebnet was brought on board to design an external web portal and offer helpdesk and outsourcing administration facilities.
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What’s on the menu?
Branded “Reflexions”, the flexible benefits scheme has allowed the company to offer employees in its four divisions the existing package of benefits, as well as an array of new benefits that cover five areas:
Core
Security & protection
Health & wellbeing
Lifestyle
Voluntary benefits.
There are 24 benefits in total, some of which are provided and paid for by Novartis and others can be chosen voluntarily by the employee under a salary-sacrifice scheme. As well as introducing benefits such as healthcare/dental plans for partners and family, holiday trading and banking, work wardrobe and financial advice, Novartis is encouraging employees to expand their own learning and give to charity through the “Lifestyle choice account” and “Payroll giving”, respectively.
In addition to work-based training, the “Lifestyle choice” account helps employees who want to enhance their personal development in anything from a language or pottery, to dog grooming or beginner car mechanic courses. Novartis will match the contribution into the account by a third up to £200 towards adult learning classes. Similarly with “Payroll giving” the company will match up to £500 per employee per year for a charitable donation of their choice.
Setting up
To establish what Novartis employees really wanted, focus group sessions were held at all sites. Following this, road shows were run with a number of the benefit providers to enable staff to get a full picture of what was on offer.
Booklets, posters and information stands have also been used to generate awareness of the scheme and presentation sessions for both management and employees held to explain how the web site and entitlement will work.
Positive outcome
According to Novartis UK, employees are “very happy with the web site, enrolment options and new benefits on offer”. Jeanette Piorkowska, Head of Reward for the UK & Ireland, said, “Take up for the new flexible benefits package has been excellent, and feedback so far is that employees are pleased with the usability of the new web site, the responsiveness of the Vebnet helpdesk and the extensiveness of the benefits they can chose from.”
She added: “At Novartis it is imperative that in such a competitive marketplace we can attract and retain key talent to maintain our leadership in the pharmaceutical industry. In order to cater to all ages and lifestyle requirements we want to be able to offer our staff a good mix of benefits that covers all grades of staff.”
Want to know more?
Novartis UK is the UK affiliate of Swiss-based Novartis AG, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Novartis UK employs some 4,000 people across ten sites. In the UK, the Novartis sites are involved in manufacturing, packaging, customer service and marketing for products used in the UK and worldwide.
Founded in 2000, Vebnet is a leading provider of technology and managed services related to total reward and flexible benefit programmes. To find out more visit www.vebnet.com.