An employee benefits platform is either background noise or it says something about the place people work. For Together Housing Group, 1,600 colleagues across Lancashire and Yorkshire, office-based, trade and field teams alike, it's become the second. Watch Deborah Lambourne, health, wellbeing and rewards advisor, explain how Ciphr benefits (also called FlexGenius) took their benefits scheme from being a list of scattered links to a package that reflects the organisation itself.
Before Ciphr benefits
"Before we had the [Ciphr benefits], life was quite different from a benefits perspective. It was a bit all over the place. There was no one place where it was. So if you're a new starter, and we're talking a few years ago, it was quite a mixed bag where to find it. It was a link for this and a link for that, and this, that and the other. But with [Ciphr benefits], we've got a more streamlined system."
Why they chose it
"It's a flexible system. It adds value, and you can bespoke it to your own benefits as well. So there's lots of added value from that point of view. It cuts down a lot of admin. So that's a good thing for adding value to what we're doing in the people team."
One place for every benefit
"It's basically a one-stop shop. All our benefits are on the portal. We have separate flat pages with our own benefits, like pensions and various things. People know where to go, and we're promoting it all the time."
An employee benefits platform that reflects their culture
"There's a lot of value in our relationships, with our account manager and our technical team. There's a lot of things we learn about benefits as well. And the portal itself, the colleagues in charge, basically. They've got the portal, they're a new starter, it's all there, it's up to them what they want to do with it. There's lots of things from a wellbeing perspective, from a financial perspective, it covers the whole array of things. And it resembles our culture, what we've got in there. It gives you a feel for what our culture is about. It's really good. It's really engaging."
What it's like to work with the Ciphr team
"We've got good relationships. Customer service is brilliant with all the teams. It's great for our colleagues, great for the teams like ourselves, the people team. Proactive approach. The technical team are very good, if you're implementing a particular benefit or launch, they're very proactive, very quick [at] making suggestions. They simplify it. I'm not a technical person, but I've got a technical person to do that for me, and they can simplify it for me and I can understand what I need to do to get that information to them."
Would they recommend Ciphr benefits?
"Yes, I'd say yes. It's flexible. The platform is flexible. The customer service for the team is brilliant, very proactive, very prompt at getting back to you, makes life easy. The actual platform, from a colleague perspective and even from an internal perspective, is very user-friendly and practical. It's good, it adds value to what we do."
Why organisations choose Ciphr
Ciphr benefits (also known as FlexGenius) is part of the Ciphr group, and the same track record runs through the wider business:
Independently rated 4.2 out of 5 on both Capterra (52 reviews, ease of use 4.3, customer service 4.4) and G2
Ciphr's own tracked measure of customer satisfaction sits at 90.8%, based on the past 12 months
Ciphr's own data shows an average customer tenure of just under 10 years
ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus accredited, across the whole organisation
See it for yourself
An employee benefits platform for 1,600 people across two counties, and one that colleagues say feels like the organisation they work for. Watch the video to hear Deborah Lambourne explain why.