Flexible Benefits Senate: Optimise and segment benefits to engage diverse employee populations

For information on the 2008 Flexible Benefits Senate please click here

27 November 2007
Hilton London Metropole, Edgware Road

Organised by Employee Benefits Magazine

This event is now fully booked.

View slides from this event

Whether you are looking to implement flexible benefits for the first time, or re-launch an existing scheme, you need to be sure that what you are offering is taking into account current best practice. Flexible benefits has evolved in recent years, and will continue to change as leading employers strive to keep ahead of competitors.

This one day senate will give you insight to what top employers of choice are doing, plus current market developments so you can be sure you are in touch with the newest thinking.

Summary:

  • Attendance is FREE, but is only open to senior HR and benefits managers who are benefits decision-makers within their own organisations.
  • Plenary Topics:
    • Building a flexible benefits strategy for 2008 and beyond
    • Funding your flex scheme and maximising ROI
    • Building an effective administration and communication strategy
  • Educational Workshops:
    • 5 Workshops run by leading flexible benefits advisers
    • Just 7 delegates in each workshop to maximise learning and discussion

More details:

Venue: Hilton London Metropole, Edgware Road
Date: 27 November 2007
Cost: free; exclusive to senior HR and benefits managers from organisations with more than 500 staff

Sponsoring partners:

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Full programme:

Flexible Benefits Senate: Optimise and segment benefits to engage diverse employee populations

09.00 Senate registration and morning coffee

09.20 Welcome & Introduction by Debi O’Donovan, editorial director, Employee Benefits

09.30-10.15 Defining your strategy and maximising ROI for flexible benefits

  • Ensuring flex is right for your organisation
  • Most common ways to fund a flexible benefits scheme
  • Why flex is of interest to organisations
  • The pros and cons of going for flexible benefits
  • The place of flex in your total reward approach

SPEAKER: Peter Reilly, Director, HR Consultancy, Institute for Employment Studies (IES)

10.15-10.50 Building a flexible benefits strategy for 2008 and beyond

  • Why offer a flexible benefits scheme: ensuring it (still) fits your HR and business objectives.
  • Impact of flexible benefits on the business.
  • Does flex really impact on recruitment, retention and productivity?
  • Conducting a feasibility study.
  • Targeting: using meaningful rewards across a diverse workforce.
  • Using flexible benefits to drive a high performance culture where employees can ‘flex’ not only benefits but also other elements of pay.

SPEAKERS: Ann-Marie Falcus, benefits leader for UK, IBM
Defne Envarli, benefits delivery manager, IBM

10.50 Morning tea

11.10 Workshops OR Tax briefing by Alastair Kendrick of Bourne Business Consulting

11.45 Workshops OR Tax briefing by Alastair Kendrick of Bourne Business Consulting

11.45 Workshops OR Tax briefing by Alastair Kendrick of Bourne Business Consulting

12.50 Lunch

14.00 Workshops OR Tax briefing by Shawn Healy of BDO Stoy Hayward

14.35 Workshops OR Tax briefing by Shawn Healy of BDO Stoy Hayward

15.15 Afternoon tea

15.35 Plenary: Building an effective administration and communication strategy

  • Which systems do you choose – what to watch out for, key questions.
  • Key elements to include in your admin system.
  • Maximising the knowledge and skills of your flex providers.
  • Dealing with employee queries.
  • Communicating flex to promote understanding and the value.
  • Using customer relationship management (CRM) to enhance the offer.
  • Keeping an established scheme effective


SPEAKERS: Paul Birt
, head of corporate HR shared services strategy, Siemens
Patricia Harriss, director, Creative Direction
(Siemens won the Employee Benefits Awards 2007 for ‘Most effective communication strategy)

16.20 Concluding remarks

Details of practical workshops run by sponsoring partners.

Benefex workshop: Launching a flex scheme: how much, how soon?

  • The best time to launch a flexible benefits scheme
  • Back to basics – How many benefits should you launch with
  • How to work out a critical dates path
  • Big bang approach versus gradual steps
  • How to use total reward statements (TRS) to get things started
  • How and what to communicate to employees
  • Possible pitfalls and how to overcome them

Equiniti workshop: Maximise the impact of flexible benefits via modern marketing techniques

  • Data management and CRM
  • Developing a benefits brand
  • New marketing techniques
  • Effective use of technology
  • Effective use of professional call centres

Mercer workshop: Designing and implementing a flexible benefits scheme

  • Establishing guiding principles for your flex scheme
  • Managing your budget
  • Launching your scheme and engaging your workforce
  • Ensuring the optimum design & benefits mix
  • Choosing the right system and managing administration

thomson online benefits workshop: Sharing what we’ve learnt

  • Don’t assume employees understand
  • Clean employee data is key
  • Have a dedicated project manager
  • Challenge the benefits providers
  • Don’t expect it to sell itself
  • Involve creative specialists
  • Measure success

This event is now fully booked.

To find out more about future sponsorship opportunities for our other Senates please contact Charlotte Adams on 020 7943 8086.