Vets Now, the provider of out-of-hours emergency veterinary care, is launching a flexible benefits scheme in an effort to aid its recruitment and retention of vets.
The company is to offer its 300 employees 1.5% of their salary to spend on benefits that include Bupa private medical insurance, childcare vouchers and professional membership schemes.
Employees who opt out of the flex plan, provided by Motivano, will be able to take the 1.5% as salary instead.
Fiona Dewar, HR director at Vets Now, said: “The new flexible benefits [plan] will act as a retention aid and will also help us to attract new vets. It is difficult because there is a shortage of vets in the UK so we need to be able to attract them and then retain them once they are here.”
The flex plan will be online so that employees can log on and make their selections each year.
The benefits included in the package will be reviewed on a regular, ongoing basis and Dewar is keen to include some more unusual perks.
“We want new ideas in the plan, such as the chance to adopt an animal, but we will start with just seven or eight benefits so as not to overload employees,” she added.
Vets Now, which has 31 clinics across the UK, also intends to provide employees with total reward statements by the end of year to remind them of their benefits package.