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Why are our fringe benefits better than “the usual”?

Capgemini
28 Sep 2022

We at Capgemini Finland have decided to build an extraordinary fringe benefits package for our employees – one that offers much more than just your basic lunch and sports vouchers and the minimum level of occupational health care.

The starting point for building a “better than average” fringe benefits package was to understand that not everyone values the same benefits, likes the same things, has the same hobbies, or shares an identical work or life situation.

“We want to offer our employees benefits they feel are valuable and that can help them with their work, private life, and work-life balance. How else can you do that except by asking people directly what they want?”

Sanna Lavonen, Head of Talent Acquisition, Capgemini Finland

Feedback guides selection process for new fringe benefits

Once a month, direct feedback is asked of the fringe benefits that are, at that point in time, available. Staff are also asked to suggest new ones. It’s clear that not all benefits are relevant for everyone. That’s why there are so-called pilot periods for new benefits. People can first try them out and later on evaluate whether they are useful or not. 

Lately, the staff has been able to try out services like Helppy, Auntie, and Cuckoo. Helppy offers home care services for the elderly that can support employees with aging parents or grandparents, Auntie provides psychological support discussion services for Capgemini employees, and the Cuckoo application is used for making breaks a little bit better during the workday.

“Our organization is agile when it comes to suggestions and improvements to our fringe benefits selection. We get things moving quickly when piloting new things our colleagues want to try out.”

Sanna Lavonen, Head of Talent Acquisition, Capgemini Finland

The talent acquisition team has plans to keep the development going. One option under consideration is that employees can pick and choose some of the fringe benefits they personally value the most. This supports individual needs and work and life situations better. However, this does not mean cutting down on “the usual” fringe benefits. It would be an added bonus to the basic selection which is available for everyone (you can see the list of our basic set of fringe benefits at the end of this blog post).

At the offices of Capgemini Finland in Ruoholahti, Helsinki, the most popular space is the wellness and spa area. It holds a full-size gymnasium for playing basketball, floorball or badminton, a small gym area, a yoga studio, a full-size swimming pool, a hot tub, and a sauna. For some downtime, there is also a bar / lounge area and big screens for following those important moments (such as the ice hockey world championships we here in Finland like watching together). The Capgemini staff can reserve the space for their own occasions, too – be it your engagement party, your grandmother’s 80th birthday celebration, or your child’s graduation day. 

Another popular fringe benefit is the Global Learning Platform. It’s a place where Capgemini staff can find courses of all sorts. There are over 250,000 options currently available from providers like Coursera, Pluralsight and Harvard Spark. You can take a course just for fun or complete a certificate (if available). Most of the courses are somehow related to the IT business, but you can just as well start learning Spanish or take a cooking class. 

Continuous learning is also encouraged with monetary awards.

“Based on the majority vote, we decided to pay a bonus whenever a person completes a certificate through the learning platform.”

Sanna Lavonen, Head of Talent Acquisition, Capgemini Finland

Networks, hobby clubs, and events bring people together

Besides the more official networks at Capgemini like the Young Professionals Network “Capsters” and the Women at Capgemini, the company encourages people to set up their own hobby clubs and casual events. These kinds of official and unofficial gatherings are a great opportunity to bring people together – even without it being strictly work-related.

“In the future, we hope to invest more in our sense of community. We want to create opportunities for our people to come together and have some fun.”

Sanna Lavonen, Head of Talent Acquisition, Capgemini Finland

Wondering what it’s like to work with us at Capgemini Finland? We’ve compiled a Careers FAQ about the main things about our company, our culture and values, the hiring process, and career development.

For further questions, you can get in touch with Sanna Lavonen, Head of Talent Acquisition, Capgemini Finland (sanna.lavonen@capgemini.com).

Ps. Here’s the list of our current “basic” fringe benefits that we complement with the wishes from our staff:

  • Extensive occupational health care and health insurance (offers services well beyond the minimum requirements) 
  • Travel insurance during work trips 
  • Flexible work time policies (flex hours, part-time, unpaid leave, vacations, remote/hybrid working) 
  • Internet connection to your home address 
  • Mobile phone benefit 
  • Lunch benefit & sport/culture benefit (Edenred card) 
  • Sick child care benefit
  • Support for home office (display and chair) 
  • Spa, pool and gym area at the newly renovated office in Ruoholahti, Helsinki 
  • Fun events g. coffee breaks, Pizza Fridays, Christmas party, sports events 
  • Elixia discount 
  • Employee Share Ownership Plan and a lot more