Fast growth startup? Here’s how to upgrade your employee benefits

With a sprinkling of seed funding, start-ups can find themselves growing at a rapid pace. And when this happens you need to attract talented people to keep the momentum going.

A key way to attract candidates is through what corporate types like to call your ‘Employer Value Proposition’ or EVP. Essentially, it poses this question: what can you offer candidates that will make them jump at the chance to work for your company?

Employee benefits are an important part of your EVP. Some benefits are seen as a minimal requirement in some industries (or table stakes as our American friends like to call it!), while others can help you stand out against the competition.

But implementing benefits, or improving what you have, can be a challenging task – unless you know what you’re doing.

In this article, we walk you through the different benefits you can offer, why utilising a broker is a no-brainer, how to expand benefits globally and more…

Need expert advice and no-obligation quotes? Our friendly award-winning advisers are always happy to help. Contact 01273 222805 or hello@hoorayinsurance.co.uk to get started.

Benchmark your benefits

So where to start? Firstly, it’s worth finding out what your competitors are offering their staff. We can help you benchmark benefits against typical industry practice so you can fill potential gaps.

It’s also useful to have an overview of what benefits are available. Below are the key policies and products that you tend to find in employee benefit schemes. Of course, what you choose to offer will depend on what you can afford, what competitors typically provide and any unique demands your staff might have.

Employee benefits to consider

Business Health Insurance: Private medical insurance regularly ranks as the most coveted employee benefit according to multiple surveys. Learn more about Business Health Insurance here.

Death-in-Service Insurance: A relatively low-cost policy which people value for the financial protection it gives to loved-ones – pays out a lump sum if an employee dies while in your employment. Learn more about Employee Life Insurance here.

Group Income Protection: A form of sick pay cover that not only supports staff financially but also provides rehabilitation services and other extras to help staff get better sooner. Learn more about Group Income Protection here.

Group Critical Illness Insurance: Gives a financial payout in the event that an employee suffers a critical illness as defined by the policy – the financial support it provides allows them to focus on recovery. Learn more about Group Critical Illness Cover here.

Company Health Cash Plans: Essentially a cashback scheme which allows employees to claim back on a range of routine health services, such as dentistry or physiotherapy. Learn more about Company Health Cash Plans here.

Dental and optical cover: A standalone insurance scheme which covers dentistry and optical services – the former of which is in high demand due to low NHS availability. Learn more about Group Dental Insurance here.

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs): Usually packaged together with a Business Health Insurance plan but can also be bought as a standalone product, often with more services included. Essentially offers support for mental and emotional wellbeing. Learn more about EAPs here.

Workplace pensions: Not something we specialise in, but important to mention nonetheless. All companies must offer a pension scheme by law, but you may choose to contribute more to the pension in order to provide a more compelling offer.

Other considerations: There are other aspects of an employee benefits scheme that you should consider which are less about products and policies and more about culture. For example, remote working options remain very popular!

If you want to attract top talent, especially in competitive sectors like tech, a well-designed benefits package can give you a telling advantage.

Enlist a broker’s help without paying a fee

Getting expert help is highly recommended as you explore your options for upgrading your employee benefits. Startups can employ the services of an employee benefits broker, like Hooray, without paying a fee or inflating the cost of the policy.

How is this possible?

In Hooray’s case, we only take a percentage from the insurance provider – but this percentage doesn’t add to the cost of the policy as it would usually be allocated to their sales team who are effectively bypassed when you enlist our support.

This begs the question: why employ a broker?

Our advisers are highly knowledgeable about the different insurer offerings and so we can quickly compare prices and advise on which insurers give the better customer service, policy features or terms and conditions.

Should you decide to invest in a policy, we’ll do most of the admin for you – again at no extra charge. So, if you need to add new people to your policy, we’ll sort that out with the insurer.

In summary, a good broker will:

• Gather quotes from across the market
• Advise on who the best providers are – based on prior experience
• Match you with policies that fit your budget
• Benchmark your benefits against others in your industry
• Give ongoing admin support so your team isn’t swamped
• Flex with your needs as the company grows

House your benefits on a digital platform

Fast-moving companies need to ensure their benefits are housed on a benefits platform that can flex with their needs. That’s why a digital employee benefits platform is the norm in most companies today.

The right system lets your team:

• Access their benefits in one place
• Update their details easily
• Use perks (like fitness discounts or counselling) without having to sift through emails

Meanwhile, HR (or other responsible persons), can benefit from reviewing usage data and updating or changing benefits with ease

There are plenty of impressive benefits platforms currently on the market with ever increasing functionality. You can learn more about benefits platforms here.

Review policies each year

Many startups make the mistake of setting up a benefits package, then thinking that’s it. They forget (or don’t have time!) to review their policies each year to see whether they are still relevant, providing value for money and comparing well against industry rivals.

Your team’s needs will also change over time. You might find that better mental health support or more musculoskeletal support is needed when reviewing employee absences. Talking to your employees and listening to what they really value can also help you offer benefits that make a real difference.

From a broker perspective, we’ll review policies to see if there’s an opportunity to tackle premium increases should they arise, better serve employee needs or improve the benefits package in-line with industry expectations.

Communicate benefits clearly

You could offer the world’s best benefits, but if no one knows they exist or how to access them, it goes largely wasted.

So, make sure all your employees know what benefits they have, how to access them and who to contact.

Brokers at Hooray can help you onboard staff via written guidance, staff webinars or team presentations.

You can also keep the conversation going with regular reminders, internal newsletters, or monthly benefit spotlights.

Again, a good benefits platform will make this much easier.

Going global? Think international benefits

Hiring internationally? Whether it’s a remote developer in Spain or a sales manager in New York City, you’ll want to make sure they are equally as well looked after as your UK employees.

There’s just one snag: deploying benefits globally is a complex undertaking. You can set up location-specific policies or protect them under a single international policy. For example, you could set up separate Group Health Insurance plans in the UK, France and Australia. Or you could protect them all under a single International Group Health Insurance plan.

And we’ve neglected to mention the thorny issue of legal compliance – every country has it’s own regulations to adhere to.

For this reason it’s important to have a broker with global expertise. As it so happens, we have a team of international advisers who can talk you through your options and implement your policies wherever your people may be.

So, where do you start?

When your company is growing at a rapid pace, you need to get things moving quickly. That’s why speaking to a broker is the ideal place to start. Any good broker should offer a no-obligation consultation where you can ask about pricing and get professional recommendations – and have the power to choose what happens next!

At Hooray, we specialise in employee benefits for start-ups and SMEs, offering tailored advice, whole-of-market access, and ongoing support to take the pressure off your admin teams.

Simply contact our award-winning team at 01273 222805 or hello@hoorayinsurance.co.uk to find out what’s possible