“Our Project Managers were fantastic, they carried out the project with complete control every step of the way.”
HR Advisor
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First Response
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Your perfect fit
– Fast
Yes, Zest can handle even the most complex, global benefits schemes. But that doesn’t mean it takes ages to implement. Because Zest has been designed with flexibility in mind, we can get you up and running in weeks, rather than months or years.
Meet some of our team
Every consultant in our implementation team is Prince 2 Agile qualified, or if they’re a junior employee, working towards it (we take professional development seriously). This means that everyone is trained to work in a structured but agile way, implementing your platform so that the finished result smashes your strategic objectives.
We’ll work closely with you throughout, and we deliver in short, fast stages. This keeps everyone on track and means you don’t have to wait until the project’s nearly finished before you see what’s being built.
Adam
Job title:
Head of Professional Services
What Adam does:
Oversee our client-centric services where we put the client at the heart of everything we do.
Fun fact:
I am a cub scout leader who goes by the name Kaa.
Best thing about working at Zest:
The fast-paced environment that flexes to our clients and their needs.
Joy
Job title:
Principal Consultant
What I do:
All things benefits and getting the best out of Zest. I talk to new and existing clients about how to use Zest, based on the structure of their scheme and the benefits they want to offer to their employees, and I work with the internal teams to ensure they are making Zest work efficiently and well for the best user experience.
Fun fact:
I love learning new things, storing all sorts of trivia, and will be able to tell you random facts such as “did you know, a crocodile cannot stick out its tongue?” (Just don’t ask me anything sport-related!).
Best thing about working at Zest:
The team! Everyone is friendly welcoming and keen to do their best.
Vicki
Job title:
Project Office Manager
What I do:
I manage our Project Office, we’re involved in planning and resourcing all client delivery projects. Liaising with all the different Zest teams, we provide management information and project governance across the business.
Fun fact:
I worked for Harry Styles’s dad in the late 90’s.
Best thing about working at Zest:
I love the Zest culture. It’s a fast-moving environment filled with great people who have great ideas. We are professional but there is a family vibe where everyone works collaboratively and is treated with respect.
WHAT THEY SAY
Zestimonials
“The support and quality of project management has been excellent. Zest have been a pleasure to work with.”
Director of HR
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Penspen
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“We were impressed by how Zest’s implementation team listened to our feedback early in the project.”
Head of Reward
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NTT Data UK
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"The speed of the onboarding process was excellent and our project manager was always available."
UK Payroll & Benefits Manager
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IG
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"We met in January and the platform went live within a matter of weeks, but the speed didn't detract from the diligence"
Reward Manager
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Travis Perkins
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Implementation
Our implementation process
We’ve nailed down a slick and thorough, five-stage implementation process to make sure your benefits system is delivered on time and smashes your strategic goals.
How it works
First things first. You’ll notice that each phase overlaps with another bubble in the process. That’s because, being agile, we don’t wait for everything in each phase to be complete before starting the next step. It helps us move fast.
Stage 1
Initiation
- Before we begin, we need to have a signed contract in place. We can’t do anything without one because it makes sure everything is in place for data protection and security.
- Once the contract is signed, the sales team pass the baton over to our implementation team with a handover. We’ll want to know everything the salesperson knows, your organisation size, what you’ve purchased, your sector, your goals, your culture and the key people from your end who we’ll be working with.
- Next, we’ll set up a meet-and-greet with your implementation consultant and arrange a kick-off session. We’ll let you know who should be in the room if you’re not sure, so there are no nasty surprises for anyone later on.
- We’ll walk you through what’s going to happen next, how we work and the key milestones of the project. We also double-check some important info, like the number of benefits you have, the functionality you’ve purchased and when we expect to go live. Exciting times are ahead!
Stage 2
Define and configuration
- This is where we do a deep dive to gather all of your requirements. No detail is too small. And being agile, we start building your benefits system too.
- During the kick-off, we’ll demo back to you what you’ve purchased, so you can see the functionality up close and personal.
- We’ll work closely with you to map out all the juicy details of your benefits scheme so we can recreate it in your shiny new platform.
- We’ll also get all of your people and benefits data into the system. These workshops are crucial. Trust us, there’s always one person who’s an exception to the rest of the scheme and who gets forgotten. By getting the data in early, we can catch any hiccups and update the scheme design pronto.
- During this stage, we’ll get all of your training sessions booked with the key people in your organisation who need to know the system like the back of their hand.
- Behind the scenes, we’re building the platform so that we can show things as they’re being built, and make some tweaks if needed. It’s much better than waiting until the very end to show you what we’ve built and then discover we’ve gone totally off track.
- Having mapped out the who, what, why, where, when and how’s, we start configuring the system, setting up things like security permissions and site settings, your branding, benefits, eligibility, content and rates.
- We’ll keep you in the loop throughout, showing you how it’s all coming together and getting your feedback at every step…It’s a team effort!
Stage 3
Quality assurance
- The quality assurance stage (QA for short) is all about us making sure that all of the requirements we’ve captured for your scheme design, your benefits and data, have been recreated in your new system properly. There’s zero involvement required from you at this stage.
Stage 4
User acceptance testing
- Another initialisation for this stage! User acceptance testing (UAT) is broken up into two phases.
- Phase one is all about benefits testing with dummy data. We’ll put your eligibility groups to the test, make sure the rates are right and that your branding is on point. And behind the scenes, we’re getting on with adding your live data.
- Phase two is where things get real. Using the live data we’ll download a payroll report in Zest and compare it to your actual payroll data. If everything matches up perfectly, we know we’ve got it right. If not, we’ll go back and do some fine-tuning until it does.
- Once we’re happy with things, we’ll ask you to sign-off. This sign-off is super important because, unless you’re 100% happy that everything we’ve built, and the data in it is accurate, we can’t launch. But don’t worry, we’ll hold your hand throughout this process and give you a log of things to test and check to make sure it’s rock solid.
Stage 5
Launch
- Just before launch, any new joiners, leavers or last-minute changes to the data are added.
- Our project office will give everything a final once-over to make sure all of the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. Once that’s all signed off, we’ll set the benefits window up so that your people can make any changes, pick any new benefits, annnd…
- BOOM! We launch the site. If you’re using our Zest Launch service we’ll craft a launch campaign with you to make sure that everyone in your company is as excited as we are about your brilliant new benefits system.
- With your employees having logged in and made their selections, it’s now on to the reporting and we’ll guide you through getting these set up so you get the insights you need.
- To wrap things up, we run a post-project review, this helps us to always keep improving our service. We’ll ask you for your feedback, and whether you’re happy to provide a testimonial or case study.
- And, with the implementation complete, we’ll hand you over to our support team to keep looking after you.
Ready to find out how we can Zestify your business?