Epsilon is to introduce a salary sacrifice arrangement to its group personal pension (GPP) plan on 1 November, introduce critical illness insurance and launch an online benefits system.

The computer and peripherals firm will roll out the option to its 80 UK staff. Half of the employer national insurance (NI) savings made from the arrangement will be returned to employees’ pension pots

Epsilon has also reduced the annual payment charge on its pension scheme from full-term to five years. The scheme is provided by Aegon.

Natalia Roberts, HR manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific. said: “[The] scheme will have a lower annual management charge so basically [staff] will have more money left in their pension scheme at the end of the year.”

The salary sacrifice arrangement is being administered by Citrus4Benefits and promoted to staff via eight different presentations leading up to the launch.

Epsilon will also roll out a new online benefits system on its intranet. “The online system has an administration element that the HR and payroll department will be able to use to administer all the benefits,” explained Roberts.

“All employee data goes in there and all the benefits they are signed up to is recorded in there as well. Employees can use it to change their personal data and what benefits they are signed up for.

The company will also introduce critical illness insurance using the savings made from a review of its benefits. “Citrus4Benefits conducted a market review of every single benefit we have which include medical, dental, life assurance, income protection and travel. It identified we could get lower rates, and the cost-savings has allowed us to offer critical illness which we did not offer before,” said Roberts.

Epsilon will first roll out the online system and new offerings to its UK staff, but intends to offer it to an extra 45 European-based staff as soon as it has been designed for multinational use. “We are planning to use the online system to store all of our international employees’ data as well to make it easier from an administration point of view,” said Roberts.

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