Crown Agents Bank (CAB) will implement a new benefits platform in June 2019 for its 150 employees.
The platform, provided by Zest Technology, has been designed to offer employees easy and flexible access to both existing and new benefits at times that are relevant to them. The platform will help CAB move away from a manual, paper-based benefits system to one that will be managed and administered completely through the Zest platform.
Marcia Jones, group head of HR at CAB, said: “We did have an existing system in place but, to be honest, it was limited in functionality. It really only managed voluntary benefits, such as childcare vouchers, cycle-to-work, smart parking, give-as-you-earn and so on.
“Contractual benefits, such as group pension, group life assurance and group income protection, had to be managed outside of the [previous] platform and, crucially, it didn’t allow our employees to flex their benefits to suit their own [lifestyles].”
CAB plans to introduce new benefits in line with the platform launch, for example a new health cash plan and an additional private medical insurance (PMI) benefit for the organisation’s executive team. The business is also changing provider for its group income protection benefit and its savings and discounts portal; this is to better align with the new benefits platform.
The new platform is being communicated to staff via pre-launch emails; these will be followed by internal employee training sessions in the week prior to the launch. There will also be teaser emails highlighting both the platform and the opening of the benefits window.
Jones added: “We wanted a fully flexible benefits platform that could manage all of our benefits and, most importantly, enable our employees to decide for themselves which benefits are most important to them at a particular point in their working lives.”