Industry
Technology
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Client since
July 2021
Company size
51-250

Benefits, a tool to attract and retain talent

Rupeal's story

Coverflex allows for speed and efficiency
The platform is easy to use
There's the possibility for the employee to decide where and when to spend

The idea is to effectively use Coverflex to attract and retain talent, as well as to reward employees, because it lets the employee have flexibility.

Luís Nogueira
,
HR Operations Lead

Times change, and so do our needs. This is evident in many areas—and flexible benefits are no exception. “Compensation and benefits are an increasingly complex area: my needs are not the same as those of someone else. We’re becoming more and more aware of emotional salaries and flexible work arrangements, and compensation is very connected to these things, it’s connected to companies looking at specific employees and cases with versatility and flexibility, understanding how far they can go in their dynamic and benefit redistribution to deliver on individual needs. That was the main reason”, says Luís Nogueira, Rupeal’s HR Operations Lead.

Founded in 2007 by Rui Pedro Alves, Rupeal group has about 200 people and integrates three brands: Kwan, an IT people business; InvoiceXpress, a product that speeds up the billing process of SMBs and ClanHR, a solution for scheduling vacation days and people management.

Awarding benefits was “something the company had in mind”, finally becoming a reality with the introduction of Coverflex. The solution was deployed for about 2 dozen people first, during the summer of 2021, and in the beginning of 2022, the plan is to extend the reach to 200 people.

Luís Nogueira adds that “The idea is to effectively use Coverflex to attract and retain talent, as well as to reward employees, because it lets the employee have flexibility”.

The Challenge

According to the HR Lead, one of the main advantages of Coverflex — and an important reason to choose it — is that it empowers each person to choose how, where and when to enjoy their benefits. “The way each person uses is up to them: if they want to spend on Gym & Fitness, Retirement & Investment products, etc. The versatility of the tool, both for the company and the employee, seeing as they can decide exactly what they want to do with their benefits package, is very useful and exactly what we wanted. The very easy process of paying for childcare with a benefits budget is just an example of that simplicity”, he points out.

The Solution

Their previous solution being a lot less flexible, with Coverflex, the company got exactly what they were looking for. “Before this, we were deciding how and when the amount was paid and that amount was always going into the employee’s salary, subject to taxation for both company and employee”, he says. Using Coverflex, Rupeal can now “canalize that benefit with more advantage for the employee, precisely because there are some benefits with tax exemptions”.

In the beginning, the solution was met with “skepticism and resistance to change”, but the company’s flat structure and open communication have made it relatively easy to adopt. “Now that I’m more familiar with the routine, it’s very simple to canalize the benefit amount to the list of employees and allocate it to someone’s wallet. I would single out how fast the budget becomes available to each employee”, Nogueira describes. “Coverflex allows for speed and efficiency: it’s important to highlight how easy and quick everything is from the moment a decision is made.”

Now that he’s familiar with the company and employee layouts, the HR Ops Lead agrees that communication in this kind of platform should be “very direct”. Among the team’s favourite benefits are the Retirement & Investment products.

“There don’t seem to be any challenges adapting to the app”, says Liliana Veríssimo, Kwan’s People Manager, about adapting to Coverflex. “As a HR professional, I already had a high level vision of what flexible benefits were. I was still positively surprised with the fact that medical expenses can be included in that group”.

Luís Nogueira added: “During the last couple of months, I’ve noticed people have more versatility when enjoying benefits through Coverflex. Paying for kids’ college tuition, daycare or the gym: each person can decide what is important to them personally.”

This story was first published on the Coverflex blog in January 2022.

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