Cooper Parry divides responsibility for benefits between its HR and finance functions.
While the HR team at the East Midlands accountancy firm runs the lion's share of perks, its finance department oversees its car fleet and pensions.

Neena Tebbutt, director of HR, says: "Responsibility for employee benefits is [with] a combination of the director of HR, director of finance and our flexible benefits expert in the financial services team. However, last year the flexible benefits process went online for the first time, which has led to a significant reduction in the amount of time spent on administrating employee benefits." The company has 260 employees and offers a flexible benefits package with more than 10 options, including holiday trading, private medical insurance, pension contributions, dental insurance and company cars.

Tebbutt believes the set up has several advantages. "The three leaders of the scheme can utilise their key strengths to maximize the success of the scheme. The flexible benefits expert can find the best deals for the firm and the director of HR can listen to the needs and wants of the employees."

She adds the finance department also plays a key role. "The director of finance is involved right from the beginning and so has an awareness of the impact on his payroll team very early on and is responsible for liaising with benefit providers to notify them who has taken up each benefit offered and for making appropriate payments," she says.

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