Flexible mobility in your cafeteria plan? Good idea!
The Coronavirus crisis has completely shaken up our pattern of living. These days, work consists of a combination of telecommuting, multiple offices and coworking spaces.
This means that we no longer travel to the same workplace every day. Consequently, more and more employees are rethinking the way they move around.
In doing so, they wonder whether a switch to flexible mobility could be more appropriate, possibly as part of a cafeteria plan.
Published 18th October 2020
Flexible mobility in your cafeteria plan?
At Olympus Mobility, we have noticed that the demand for flexible mobility is growing every day. Employees want to be able to choose their mobility, including their commutes and business travel.
There are currently several ways to offer flexible mobility to your employees, such as the legal mobility budget, expense budget, cafeteria plan, etc.
But why not combine options? Olympus Mobility now also provides the option of including flexible mobility in your cafeteria plan. Your employees are allocated a budget that they can then use for the various means of transport available through the Olympus app. There are many options, by the way, such as the train, tram, bus, metro, shared bike, shared car etc.
Just to clarify a few terms.
1. What is a cafeteria plan?
Employees put together their own salary package based on a plan prepared by the employer. Specifically, this means giving employees the opportunity to exchange parts of their regular salary (a percentage of the monthly gross salary, a bonus, end-of-year bonus, etc.) for another benefit that is more suited to their wishes and preferences.
2. Waarom een cafetariaplan?
Why is a cafeteria plan such a good option? Because its introduction creates a win-win situation for the employer and employees.
- Benefits for employees:
- Freedom of choice: as an employee, you decide your own salary package
- Financial benefit: fringe benefits often mean lower social security contributions and taxes
- Benefits for the employer:
- Employer branding: a cafeteria plan boosts employer branding, especially in SMEs. As you are undoubtedly aware, this is a factor that should not be underestimated in the war for talent
- Unchanged salary costs: a cafeteria plan means no additional costs for the employer, and it is cost-neutral. After all, the budget in the cafeteria plan is a conversion of the traditional salary that the employer has to pay out in cash anyway.
Concrete case of flexible mobility through a cafeteria plan
We briefly illustrate the above with a concrete case from our partner-customer, KPMG.
Every KPMG employee can choose a budget for commuting and business travel to spend on mobility options in the Olympus Mobility app. KPMG attaches an incentive to make its employees opt for alternative and flexible mobility.
What does this incentive entail? For every day an employee uses the Olympus app, he or she earns € 10. That amount is added to his or her 13th month and paid out at the end of the year. You can read all about it in our interview with KPMG’s Mobility Manager, Peter Van de Velde.
Integration with the FIP tool of SD Worx
Olympus Mobility realises that the demand for flexible mobility will continue to grow. We are therefore committed to providing even better services to our prospects and customers.
Together with one of our partners, SD Worx, we have been making efforts over the past few months to integrate with the Flex Income Plan (FIP), which is SD Worx’s cafeteria plan. If an employee opts for the Olympus Mobility in the FIP tool, everything is done automatically:
- the employee receives the information required,
- an account is created in the Olympus Mobility management portal,
- and the workload for the employer is minimal.
In doing so, we are committed to digitalisation, automation and sustainability.
Would you like to integrate Olympus Mobility into your cafeteria plan?
And offer your employees the chance of flexible mobility?
