Guide to creating a flexible benefits plan in your company

13 de February, 2023

The job market is highly competitive and today’s generations are the most qualified ever. This means that talents tend to be more demanding of the companies they consider working for.

In this context, organizations in the most diverse sectors of activity have an added challenge when it comes to recruiting candidates and retaining employees.

To counteract this difficulty, many are beginning to realize that defining an attractive flexible benefits policy can enable them to improve their value proposition (EVP) and gain a competitive advantage over competing companies – i.e. those competing for existing human capital.

Want to know more? We’ll explain what flexible benefits are and help you with a step-by-step guide to creating a flexible benefits plan in your company.

What are flexible benefits?

Flexible benefits are a complement to the salary package granted to employees and are adapted to their needs, interests and life stages. This flexibility is based on the fact that companies are made up of different people, who may value different aspects when it comes to compensation.

The aim of flexible benefits is to support employees with certain expenses, maximize their purchasing power, but also foster their personal and professional development and promote their well-being and quality of life.

Flexible benefits can therefore be a financial or non-financial reward:

• Flexible financial benefits: e.g. meal allowance, support for childcare costs, support for education and training costs, support for health costs, transport allowance, among others.
• Non-financial benefits: for example, flexible working hours, hybrid or remote work, additional vacation days, among others.

But which benefits are best suited to the reality of your company and your employees?

Step by step to create a flexible benefits package

Follow these five steps to implement a solid and attractive flexible benefits plan for your employees.

1 – Listen to your employees

The first step should invariably be to find out the opinion of the recipients of the benefits: the employees. Find out what their needs and expectations are by asking which benefits they value most. You could develop an internal questionnaire for this purpose.

This survey is crucial for getting to know workers’ preferences and for defining patterns (for example, by age group, gender, geographical location, etc).

2 – Find out about the legal and fiscal framework of each benefit

Depending on the benefit, especially with regard to financial benefits, there may be a specific legal and tax framework. It is essential that the company knows all the legal aspects – existence of specific legislation, eligibility of the company and the employee, etc – and tax aspects – tax advantage associated with the benefit, conditions for the existence of the tax advantage, correct accounting, etc – inherent in the attribution of each benefit in order to implement them correctly.

3 – Define the flexible benefits plan

Once you have listened to your employees and know the legal framework for the various extra-salary benefits, start thinking strategically about which ones make sense to give.

Take into account the preferences identified by employees, but also the company’s real needs, objectives and possibilities. In the case of financial benefits, define the amounts to be allocated, the frequency of allocation, the type of benefit and who it is intended for.

4 – Find a supplier to provide the benefits

Once the benefits plan has been set up, it may be necessary to find a company that specializes in solutions for assigning extra-salary benefits.

Some benefits – such as meal allowances, childcare, education, training or health benefits, for example – have tax advantages for both the company and the employee if they are awarded through social vouchers. It is therefore necessary to find an issuer that guarantees security, quality and compliance with all legal and tax requirements.

5 – Regularly monitor and evaluate the success of the plan

Any strategy must include a results analysis stage. And in this case, the results can be in terms of absenteeism, the turnover rate, the average recruitment and hiring time, employee satisfaction and motivation, their involvement with the organization, among others. The important thing is to define the metrics that will allow you to assess whether the implementation of flexible benefits is having the desired results or not.

In addition, don’t see the benefits plan as a closed and unchangeable project. It is more likely – and advisable – that the allocation of these benefits will evolve in line with the needs of employees and market trends and best practices.



The importance of flexible benefits seems undeniable in a context where many managers in various industries are finding it difficult to hire and retain talent.

So if your company doesn’t yet have a solid flexible compensation strategy based on extra-salary benefits, this guide can help you get started!