Listen: For global footwear brand FitFlop, one of its key challenges is to provide a unified approach to employee benefits to ensure engagement levels are high in all of the countries it operates in.
That approach includes a wide range of perks that appeal to all employees, and that help the organisation attract and retain the best talent. In this episode of the Employee Benefits podcast, Emma Andrews, global payroll and reward specialist at FitFlop, explains how the benefits provision is designed to ensure all employees will find some, or all, of these valuable. For example, one aspect of its provision is to give employees a choice of a valuable healthcare benefit that is funded by the organisation. Andrews discusses this and how the organisation has continued to provide support to employees through difficult times.
At a glance
FitFlop is predominantly a footwear brand that uses biomechanically engineered products; the shoes are designed to complement the customer’s body structure, joint alignment and natural movement.
Typical job roles include the product team that completes research on current technologies; the digital team, e-commerce, digital marketing and web development; and the sales team.
It has 255 employees globally and 170 in the UK. The average age of staff is 37 (globally) and 36 (UK), and the average length of service is three years (globally) and five years (UK).
Primary business objectives that impact benefits for the coming year:
- In a volatile world where all retailers are navigating external factors including employees and consumers who are impacted by financial pressures and uncertainty, retaining talent and protecting the benefits that are valued by FitFlop’s employees has to stay a top priority and to ensure flexibility and choice.
Career history
Emma Andrews joined Fitflop in April 2022 as payroll and reward advisor before being promoted in January 2023 to global payroll and reward specialist.
In her previous role, Andrews introduced a new way of keeping track of employee changes to make a more streamlined process for payroll. She says: “In my current role, myself and a colleague presented at Employee Benefits Live [2023] on the benefits and wellbeing offerings we provide and what truly makes Fitflop a great place to work; this was great fun to take part in as it was an opportunity to tell more people why we do the job that we do.”