When procurement services firm BuyingTeam considered implementing flexible benefits, it began speaking to various consultants and advisers. Ultimately, however, it took the decision to go it alone and install a software solution from Staffcare. Leah Fairman, HR manager, explains: "What the consultants appeared to offer - primarily PR for the system and employee communications - we realised we could do ourselves. In the initial stages we weren't going for a full flex platform and we felt we had sufficient ability in-house. We have a small, cohesive administrative team, and our finance and HR teams work closely together to ensure the system works."†
The organisation has approximately 100 staff and Fairman admits a larger company might have more difficulty in implementing such a system itself because of the co-ordination and communication required between departments.
"One person did offer to come in and design the system for us, but we had a clear idea of what we wanted and Staffcare made it very easy for us to give them our specification," she adds.
Due to its size, the number of suitable products offered by providers is limited so the firm has yet to implement fully flexible benefits. Instead, it offers holiday trading, payroll giving and salary sacrifice pension contributions flexibly for staff to select in an annual enrolment period.
