Insurance organisation Zurich has updated its employee benefits offering for 5,000 UK employees, as well as launched an employee benefits portal to better support the organisation’s agile working culture and multigenerational workforce.
The new portal, called Indigo, was introduced on 7 November 2018 for the organisation’s UK-based staff. Provided by Thomsons Online Benefits, Indigo will enable employees to access and manage their benefits and reward via any mobile device and will also provide supporting information, such as organisation and marketplace discounts, employment policies and workplace wellbeing initiatives. The portal will also signpost employees to the insurer’s employee assistance programme (EAP) and financial education.
Steve Collinson (pictured), head of UK human resources, said: “We’re proud to be an inclusive and forward-looking employer and part of that means having a 21st century approach to our reward proposition. We’ve chosen Thomsons Online Benefits to help us deliver modern and relevant benefits to all UK employees because they are the market leaders in this area.”
In alignment with the introduction of Indigo, Zurich has also refreshed its core, employer-paid benefits to implement a 24/7 virtual GP service, with appointments via video or phone and prescriptions delivered within an hour, a personalised financial education platform, provided by Nudge, and flu vaccinations, which can be redeemed using a digital voucher.
Also within Zurich’s core benefits is a wellbeing programme, provided by Lifeworks by Morneau Shepell. This includes personalised daily content, such as audio and video, around mental, physical, social and financial wellness, wellbeing challenges, clinical support, for example counsellors, an EAP, an employee physical assistance programme for digital and phone health coaching, a personalised news feed and perks and discounts to save money on daily essentials, life events and luxury brands.
Zurich has additionally implemented five new salary sacrifice benefits. These are a virtual GP service for family members, gadget insurance for up to £2,000 of annual cover, a will writing service, a discounted gym membership for up to 30% off at more than 3,000 UK gyms and a technology scheme, where staff can access products with a saving of up to 12% paid, interest free, over 12 months.
Indigo further allows employees to see a detailed breakdown of their benefits package, showing both employer and employee contributions. If employees make changes to their benefits, these are shown in real time.
Collinson added: “Through our work with Thomsons [Online Benefits], we’re genuinely excited about being able to offer some new market leading benefits, like our virtual GP and Nudge platform, where we’re supporting our people using technology to help them manage their physical and financial wellbeing.
“[While] it’s early days, we’ve had some fantastic feedback already. Together with our family-friendly policies and supporting agile working across all our locations, we’re confident that our new approach will put us in great shape for the future as we strive to build an even more successful UK business and make Zurich an even better place to work.”