FLEXIBLE BENEFITS
Symbian Foundation launches online flex
The Symbian Foundation, a newly formed non-profit organisation, has launched online flexible benefits for its employees. Formed in 2009, Symbian says its mission is to enable an “open ecosystem that collaborates to create the most complete and richest user experiences for mobile devices”.
As a new organisation, with employees joining from a wide range of businesses, it wanted to provide a comparable and competitive benefit package. To engage such a diverse and rapidly-growing workforce, the company felt it needed to be as flexible as possible. Symbian appointed Thomsons Online Benefits to create a bespoke solution including broking of benefits, a communications strategy and an online platform.
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What’s on the menu?
The new scheme, branded “flex”, includes core benefits such as pension and holiday, plus additional benefits employees can choose to fit in with their lifestyle. Salary sacrifice was introduced which generated savings for employees on national insurance contributions. Through Thomsons’ technology, employees can now view their personalised total reward statements online and make selections including enrolling in the pension.
Communications programme
The communications were inspired by Symbian’s corporate branding to engage employees in their unique “world of Symbian” culture. The scheme was launched to employees using both online and offline media, including a digital brochure explaining the benefits available and how to make selections via the web site.
A final word
“As a young and growing business, we wanted to reward employees to the level they were accustomed and ensure they felt part of our unique culture. The launch of ‘flex’ has been a great success, with 95% of employees enrolling in the pension scheme in the first month.” - Steve Warner, HR Director, Symbian Foundation.
Want to know more?
Symbian maintains the code for an open source software platform based on Symbian OS and software assets contributed by Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, and Sony Ericsson. It has offices in the UK (London), US (Foster City), Japan (Tokyo), and Finland (Helsinki), and will soon have a regional operation in China (Beijing). For more information visit www.symbian.org.
Thomsons Online Benefits says: “Since our inception, our vision has been to transform employees' appreciation and understanding of their reward package and to remove the administration and communication headaches organisations suffer as a result of running them". Further information can be found at www.thomsons.com.