Flexible benefits: what are the biggest challenges?

ize, diversity and sector are some of the characteristics to take into account when defining the offer of flexible benefits in your company.

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‍What are the biggest challenges of thinking about remuneration and compensation? It depends, experts say. The topic raises many questions and issues: first, it is necessary to look at each company as a unique and specific reality.

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With 6,500 employees, Altice integrates in its work structure people from operational technicians “who climb the poles” to engineers and finance experts. “This reality has an impact on what our remuneration policies are (...). Workers, especially the younger ones, value the possibility of composing their contribution package. The importance they attribute to these packages is different, depending on the age of the employees”, points out Graça Rebôcho, the company's human resources director, in the webinar “Remuneration and compensation: accounting aspects and impact on employer branding". With an average age of 47, the biggest challenge at Altice is to adapt the offer to the needs of newcomers to the market and others who have been in the company for decades. "Sometimes it's a little difficult to introduce flexible models when most workers are used to tighter models."

With an average age of 47, the biggest challenge at Altice is to adapt the offer to the needs of newcomers to the market and others who have been in the company for decades. "Sometimes it's a little difficult to introduce flexible models when most workers are used to tighter models."

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In Primavera, the 350 employees in Portugal and Africa, and the approximately 600 that the company has recently integrated through the group's Spanish projects, also represent a reality that the organisation is familiar with but which is not representative of the majority of cases in Portugal.

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“The Portuguese business fabric is made up of companies with up to 10 employees. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of companies that are out of this system because they are not motivated to use benefits of this type”, analyses José Dionísio, Co-CEO of Primavera BSS.

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“The Portuguese business fabric is made up of companies with up to 10 employees. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of companies that are out of this system because they are not motivated to use benefits of this type”, analyses José Dionísio, Co-CEO of Primavera BSS.

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On the other hand, José Dionísio believes that the broader use of the offer of benefits involves, many times, informing employees about the options. "It's a matter of provoking, pushing them." The flexibility and efficiency of its use also involves the “digital transformation of companies”. “In Primavera we have several benefits in areas such as work-life balance, training, well-being. But, in some of them, we need a platform to make the best decisions about which type of benefits we should evolve”, he stresses.

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For José Fernandes, Finance & International Expansion Manager at Coverflex, “flexible benefits have a future in companies.” “We have always thought and considered the difficulty that SMEs have in implementing this type of solutions. We try to make it accessible to as many companies as possible. (...) What we believe in what comes to benefits in general is that the value delivered to people is greater if there is flexibility of choice, and if this flexibility can be permanent that's even better”.

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For José Fernandes, Finance & International Expansion Manager at Coverflex, “flexible benefits have a future in companies.” “We have always thought and considered the difficulty that SMEs have in implementing this type of solutions. We try to make it accessible to as many companies as possible. (...) What we believe in what comes to benefits in general is that the value delivered to people is greater if there is flexibility of choice, and if this flexibility can be permanent that's even better”.

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An offer that's broader and, at the same time, more directed to the particular needs of each employee is, in principle, a measure that suits a greater multiplicity of expectations and experiences.

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“Traditionally, the flexible offer was restricted to large companies, and what Coverflex offers is complete integration, allowing workers to maximise the value of the benefits attributed to them”, stresses José Fernandes, adding: “In terms of overall benefits, we believe the value of this additional package is greater if there is flexibility of choice, and it's even higher if it is permanent or almost permanent. We believe that people should decide how to use it because needs change over time. We believe in a very flexible approach”.