But ensuring that its perks are fair and competitive can be a challenge, particularly when it comes to ensuring that it remains up to date with legislative changes.
Ian Wright, director, global compensation and benefits, at The Attachmate Group, says: “The main challenges are knowing exactly what benefits are offered and to whom, particularly where we have some legacy benefits arrangements due to acquisitions we’ve made in the past.
“On top of that, we have the challenge of knowing what the statutory requirements are in each country and what the typical market practice is, and then keeping up to date with any legislative changes that might need us to make a change to the benefits.”
The software holding organisation, which owns brands including Attachmate, NetIQ, Novell and SUSE, and has around 3,500 employees working in 30 countries, recognises the importance of ensuring that all employees receive a minimum level of benefits.
“Every country is very different, but we aim to ensure that in each country, as a minimum, our employees have life assurance, access to healthcare and also retirement provision,” says Wright.
This may be in the form of workplace or state-funded benefits support.
“In Germany, private medical insurance [PMI] is rare, because there is a good state-run medical scheme,” adds Wright. ”And in Australia there is a mandatory state superannuation retirement plan that employees must contribute to.”
The organisation works with local benefits advisers to ensure that the benefits package offered to staff remains fair and competitive, and to keep it updated about any required statutory changes. “We also buy benefits reports every few years to review our competitiveness,” says Wright.
It also works with local brokers to ensure it gets the best price for annual benefit scheme renewals. “For some benefits, such as life assurance, it’s all about the price. But for benefits such as PMI, the level of service from the provider is also very important,” Wright adds.
