Keeping benefits local and global at Fidelity International
Fidelity International combines guiding principles for its global benefits strategy with a local flexibility, and works closely with teams and delivery partners, its head of global benefits told the Multinational benefits strategies that will mitigate business risk REBA webinar on 15 May 2024.
“The important thing is to share the global guiding framework so we are looking at the same goal,” said Reiko Kubota, head of global benefits. “There are variations because we have to respond to local needs, legislation and what insurance companies can do.”
The company retains flexibility in the guiding principles, without decentralising the strategy. “Everyone knows and observes the principles, and if there are deviations, we know they are deviations and the reasons for them,” Kubota added.
“This is how we have added control and have unified the global benefits. There is no such thing as global benefits and one-size-fits-all, but we have achieved a sense of unity this way,” she said.
A poll during the webinar found that 22% of attendees said they consider their risk benefits in all regions in alignment to their overall business risk strategy. Nearly half (48%) said they “sort of” considered benefits in this way but could do better, and 31% do not consider them in this way.
Fidelity International employs 10,000 people across 27 locations worldwide and runs one of the biggest pension funds in the UK. It is also focused on sustainability of its investments.
Kubota added: “We are quite vulnerable to the market – the expansion and contraction – and at the receiving end of environmental and economic changes. But rather than knee-jerk reactions, we think about how we can sustain what we design and offer employees in a few years’ time when we come out of the bull market.”
