"Flexible benefits that employees appreciate"

A fun job that pays well – what more can you wish for in working life? Quite a lot actually, which is exactly why some types of benefit are significant. Ebba Schwalbe Ekström at SEB explains how this part of the employment offering can contribute to personal development, increased commitment and everyday wellbeing.

When SEB works with benefits, one of the keywords is flexibility. This means that they do not expect a single solution to suit or attract everyone. Ebba Schwalbe Ekström, who is responsible for the benefits offering within Compensation & Benefits at the bank, describes it like this:

“We want our benefits to contribute to the wellbeing of the bank’s employees and to make them feel that we offer something extra. One important consideration for us is to remember that everyone is different and at a different stage of life. For example, we have a benefit that compensates for part of the salary loss when on parental leave and another that gives employees aged 58 and over the right to work part-time. The My Lifestyle account gives employees 3,000 kronor with which to purchase services that promote health and work-life balance, depending on their individual needs, such as domestic cleaning, meal box subscriptions or a health check.”

She continues:

“All in all, we want our benefits to encourage three things: health, a good work-life balance and sustainability. The last-mentioned can be seen among other things in our active encouragement of equality and our employees’ access to a volunteer portal where they can allocate eight working hours per year to activities that benefit the community.”

Benefits now visible in the recruitment process

When there are many benefits it can also be difficult to get an overall view and to evaluate them. How can a presumptive employee at SEB get an idea of what the bank has to offer – apart from an exciting job and competitive monthly salary, that is?

“We have recently made it possible to see what benefits there are and their approximate value already in the recruitment process. In addition we have uploaded a video of the entire offering in our job applicants’ portal. Obviously, we want to reach out with everything we have to offer and we also know that our benefits are really good compared with those of other employers,” says Ebba Schwalbe Ekström.

Can you name some benefits that are especially popular among SEB employees at the moment?

“The benefits that are a bit special for us are obviously popular. For example our own staff bank, profit-sharing programme and the Campus training portal. Among the most popular benefits are those that to a greater extent allow employees themselves to make a choice, for example, a wellness subsidy of 3,000 kronor and the My Lifestyle account. Many also appreciate the possibility to rent a holiday cottage. Overall we see that benefits are very useful in our employees’ everyday lives.”