Undersea engineering company Subsea 7 gives staff a set of flexible perks which they can trade up or down - within certain limits.

Jackie Mann, senior HR manager, says: "The use of preset limits ensures employees maintain a minimum level of cover. For example, we ensure all staff maintain group life assurance of at least twice their salary. This ensures we have something to offer bereaved relatives."

The organisation also offers a range of benefits offered via salary sacrifice and salary deduction (where payments are taken from net salary). "Wherever possible, Subsea 7 tries to provide all benefits via salary sacrifice," says Mann. "We look at each new benefit with our employee benefit consultants to assess whether it is appropriate to use the salary sacrifice mechanism."

Benefits offered in this way include pension contributions, private medical insurance and dental insurance. Mann adds: "The only benefit we do not currently offer on a salary sacrifice basis is our restaurant benefit, which allows employees to add funds to their cashless account for food in the company restaurant."

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