Case Study - Aon Insurance Group
When the Aon insurance group decided to implement a flex scheme for its 7,000 employees it naturally turned to its own benefits subsidiary, Aon Consulting. Despite this, Michael Rose, director of reward and HR policy at the insurance company, decided to commission an independent feasibility study from a major accountancy firm to get an external view and to determine whether flex would work for the group.
Once past this hurdle, he set up a cross-divisional team that included the technologists who looked after the company's Peoplesoft HR system and the firm's tax director to liaise with the Inland Revenue. "We didn't want to run any risks," he explains.
There was also another small legal element. "Their involvement was two-fold. Firstly, from an employment law perspective to make sure the way we were presenting it was not prejudicial to [employees'] contracts. Secondly, when we were introducing new third-party suppliers, we used our legal colleagues to negotiate the contracts. There was a fairly small legal component but you can't afford to get it wrong."
Key to the project was a formal project manager who kept the whole thing ticking over. "It happened to be someone in IT (although it needn't have been an IT person). I was directing the project - the composer not the conductor if you like. You need a project manager" explains Rose.
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