IT services company Atos has begun aligning non-contractual benefits for staff following its acquisition of Siemens’ IT Solutions and Services in July 2011.
While the contractual benefits terms of its 3,500 new employees were protected under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Tupe) regulations, Atos has tried to align the non-contractual elements of benefits
schemes that were similar but supplied by different providers. These include its voluntary benefits scheme, and the way that long service and employee recognition are administered.
Cheryl Allen, HR business partner at Atos, said: “We are trying to bring the benefits together so there is a consistency in terms of providers and what the offerings are.”
The organisation, which now has 10,000 employees, has also revamped its recognition scheme, Accolades, following a review.
The in-house scheme was previously administered through the company’s expenses system, with employees being presented with awards directly. After the review, the scheme has been aligned with Atos’ online I Choose voluntary benefits plan, with staff being awarded a monetary value to spend through the scheme.
“We did a review of it last year because, although we have standard levels of awards, the reasons why staff were getting them were not consistent,” said Allen. “We wanted to keep it simple for managers to give these awards, but also to make sure they were effective recognition gifts and make sure we had a level of consistency.”
Atos has built an application on its intranet site through which managers can make nominations to be sent through an approval process. Once approved, the employee can then redeem their award through the voluntary benefits website.
Allen added: “If an employee gets an award and it is worth £25, once it is approved, it will go through the I Choose portal. The employee will get an email from the portal and can log on to select vouchers or gift cards to redeem the award.”
Read also Atos achieves 60% voluntary benefits take up
Read more on integrating benefits