Companies need to offer competitive benefits to employees or risk having employees become dissatisfied with their current job situations. KPMG Canada recently faced such a challenge when the company’s portfolio of benefits was viewed by employees as uncompetitive compared to packages offered by other high-performing organizations. Despite its People Matters program that offered leave for adoption, flex-time, workout opportunities, and other perquisites, employee survey results indicated that generalized satisfaction with benefits was low. These results were not alarming to managers, given that KPMG had not revised employee benefits for some time. However, what was needed to fix this problem was a comprehensive overhaul of the company’s benefits program using a strategic approach guided by employee feedback, leadership direction, and innovation. Top leadership also wanted the new plan to be congruent with the organizational approach to total rewards and to incorporate a sufficient “wow factor” to satisfy employees.
KPMG started the strategic planning process by comparing current benefits to the packages offered by other competing organizations, and the results verified that the company had to make up some ground in the area of benefits administration. A benefits consultant was hired to facilitate the redesign effort, and a steering committee comprised of top managers was developed to oversee the proposed changes, garner greater support for the new benefits throughout the company, ensure that many different employee needs were being met, and make sure the plan was competitive overall.
After working on the project for more than two years, KPMG successfully developed a new benefits package that delighted employees. For instance, individuals were given many coverage options for dental, medical, disability, and life insurance. In addition, employees could dedicate pools of flex dollars to certain benefits programs that best suited their needs. Individuals are given a set amount of flex dollars, but more can be earned based on pay, different lifestyle incentives, and tax-free bonus incentives. Recent employee survey results show that people prefer the new benefits package over the old plan, which has enhanced how employees feel about the organization as a whole.

1. Why is having a competitive benefits package important for KPMG Canada?
2. In your opinion, did top leadership at KPMG Canada manage the benefits redesign effort well? What else could the company have offered its employees to keep them satisfied?