Coverflex, catalyst for Stellaxius' growth

On the one hand, because the company went from a "small group of employees" to "suddenly a team of more than 60 people". On the other hand, Teresa Miguéns explains, because this sudden "big growth boom" was not met by an adaptation to the way she handled financial and human resources control. "The logistics were quite difficult because we had 60 employees and we had to identify the particularities of each one of them. Controlling these costs in Excel was extremely difficult," the now Head of ADM & SR at Stellaxius tells Coverflex.

"We started to realise that we had to look a little further ahead. We identified some possible partners, we were looking at the platforms that each one offered us. Coverflex was the one that met the most conditions, everything flowed more easily, and we moved forward", she recalls.

The adoption of the flexible compensation solution was followed by a careful onboarding process. First, Stellaxius communicated by e-mail that it would be transitioning to a platform to manage benefits beyond salary. Then, in order to make the process more agile for everyone, it was time for a formal presentation where employees could see all their questions answered and even suggest improvements. The process, says Teresa, was smooth.

"We decided that the management would be done by the finance department because the management of benefits has a great impact on taxes, not only for us, Stellaxius, but also for employees. Therefore, it was important for us to assess this impact, and we did it together with our accounting team from the get-go", explains Sandra Nave, Head of Finance at Stellaxius, about managing Coverflex at the company. "Our employees also come and talk to us whenever they have any questions or want to use the benefit, and try to find out what the impact might be on their personal sphere". In addition to empowering people on financial literacy issues, Coverflex has also helped reduce bureaucracy. "The employees manage it themselves and indicate where they want to use the benefits. And all we have to do is extract the information, which is already prepared and sent to accounting, to be dealt with at tax level. It greatly reduces administrative work and gives the employee the power to choose what they want to do with the money they have available", she emphasises.

"We work with very dynamic markets, with increasingly demanding generations, who always like to have tools that meet what they are looking for and the needs they have", she justifies.

With a current team of around 75 employees, the Stellaxius team is aware that it is currently competing in an increasingly global market. For this reason, the adoption of a compensation solution that suits the different needs of potential employees has extra attention, and a major role in attracting and retaining talent.

"The IT area is extremely competitive, it has a very dynamic market. (...) One of the main advantages we saw in Coverflex, in addition to being a solution that allowed the employee themselves to be the main character and make their own decisions, is the fact that it is a platform that has enabled us to adapt to our reality and create new features here, later, that meet what we are looking for", says Sandra Soares, HR Generalist at the company.

Regarding the benefits, Teresa uses almost all of them but has favourites. "The one I always use is the gym, the ones I find most interesting are the  Technology one and the one that allows us to have training", she concludes.