The London-based law firm, Howard Kennedy, has implemented a new, state-of-the-art new benefits technology platform from Zest Benefits to deliver a comprehensive raft of flexible employee benefits.
Howard Kennedy is a full-service law firm specialising in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters. The firm has experienced strong organic growth over the last couple of years and now employs over 350 legal and business professionals. Until recently, the firm ran it’s complete, and not insubstantial, employee benefits programme manually via spreadsheets, emails and paper based systems.
Commenting on the reasons behind the decision to automate its benefits programme, Katie Pearson, senior HR operations manager at Howard Kennedy, said: “The old process was incredibly admin heavy and, quite frankly, took us far too long to do far too little.
“We had been considering the implementation of a new employee benefits system for a while and the final catalyst was the decision to simultaneously update our outdated main HR system and move to a Sage platform,” Pearson added. “We needed a new benefits system that would meet all of our complex needs and be fully Sage compatible. We evaluated the market, shortlisted three vendors and finally selected Zest. We haven’t been disappointed. Zest seemed to mirror our own culture and ethos, the implementation was incredibly smooth, all of our bespoke demands were met and the new benefits platform has been welcomed by one and all across the company.”
The new system went live recently and currently manages more than a dozen different benefits – including new health and cancer screening options previously not available. These range from season ticket loans and life insurance through to employee assistance and recruitment referral programmes; many of which are vary in relevance and availability depending on the individual employee’s position as well as what stage they are at in their career and life.
Zest’s ground-breaking new platform was developed from the ground up and launched in early 2018 following a multimillion pound, three year investment programme. Ray Sieber, managing director at Zest, said: “Our new system is now widely recognised as the most advanced and easiest to use employee benefits platform on the market. It offers clients like Howard Kennedy the opportunity to set up and run everything themselves – from the front end look and feel through to the more complex configuration and scheduling of processes – and gives them optimum levels of management and control at a price point that has never been possible before.
Pictured: Howard Kennedy’s London head office