Facilitating financial wellbeing lies at the heart of our services. We offer our clients a range of services to assist with their employee benefits programs and improve their employees’ financial well-being, including salary packaging, novated leasing and workforce optimisation services. Our services help almost 380,000 customers across Australia reduce the tax they pay and enjoy more of their income on payday.
Our client, St Vincent’s, is one of Australia’s most iconic hospitals. Founded in 1857 by the Sisters of Charity, the hospital includes specialty units that are internationally recognised as centres of excellence. Attracting and retaining the right staff is vital to St Vincent’s delivering the quality care it prides itself on – and a key part of that is Smartsalary (a company of Smartgroup) which enables employees to access a range of benefits.
“Smartsalary is an important part of our Employee Value Proposition,” explains Rio Pun, People and Culture Manager. “It helps us attract and keep the people we need to do everything we do on a daily basis.” Already, 2,800 staff members – including many frontline staffers – have signed up for Smartsalary benefits ranging from mortgage and rent benefits through to cost-of-living expenses. That’s about 65% of their workforce.
The key to signing up more, says Rio, is helping people better understand how salary packaging could benefit them. A new Smartsalary packaging calculator lets hospital staff see the difference between gross income and net income, and how that can affect their bottom line. Specifically, the online calculator shows the items each person is potentially able to package, along with data highlighting the changes to their hip pocket.
“Through the Smartsalary website, people enter the details for their organisation,” says Rio. “They can then input data and get a personalised report in the form of a table. Often, they’re surprised by what they stand to gain. Salary packaging can literally make thousands of dollars of difference, depending on people’s costs.” For the hospital, that means an ability to compete on an even keel with other organisations. “It’s a must-have for us, and one that our internal monitoring shows is seen as a strong positive by participating staff.”
The goal now is to further increase the percentage of employees accessing Smartsalary benefits. “We used to actively promote Smartsalary onsite and at staff orientation. That slipped with COVID-19. But with the new calculator and the reintroduction of promotional events, we’re hoping that more of our people will see the advantages in choosing to salary package through Smartsalary. The calculator has let people see the options for themselves and given them a better understanding of what they stand to gain. We want it to be win-win for all our staff.”
We continue to support our customers’ everyday decision-making by providing information and resources that increase their financial wellbeing. Click here to read more about our initiatives in our Sustainability Report.