What are employee benefits?

Every small business owner wants to create an affordable and attractive employee benefits package for their staff. The best benefit schemes include perks that assist with:

• Physical health: preventing bad things from happening wherever possible but also having something in place for when things do go wrong
• Mental & emotional wellbeing: doing your bit to ensure team members maintain a happy and healthy outlook
• Financial stability: because the rising costs of everything mean that anything employers can do help will be massively appreciated

In the broadest sense, employee benefits include everything from free staff lunches all the way up to health insurance schemes and beyond! It’s all those little things you can do to assist your employees beyond the pay packet.

Whether you’re on a fact-finding mission or actively seeking to set up an employee benefits scheme, you’ve come to the right place.

Hooray Health & Protection is dedicated to breaking down the wall of confusion and helping companies invest wisely in an employee benefits package.

As an independent insurance broker, we are not tied to any insurance provider which means we can offer advice which is genuinely in your best interest – and we provide it FREE of charge. If you’d like one-to-one guidance email [email protected] or call 01273 222805.

 

Why offer employee benefits?

More and more SMEs are offering a benefits package to look after the health, happiness and wellbeing of their staff. While a hefty pay packet will go some way to attracting talent, extra perks outside of the wage structure can also help recruit and retain the best people.

Only 41% of workers feel satisfied with their benefits, according to a survey by the CIPD. If true, then employee benefits can provide a key competitive advantage in recruiting the best employees and fostering loyalty within your team.

There’s only one problem: budget. Any employee benefits package has to be both affordable and capable of addressing the needs of current and prospective staff.

It’s a tricky balancing act, and a key reason why getting one-to-one professional – and (crucially!) unbiased – advice is so important.

Examples of UK employee benefits

There are various types of employee benefit you can provide, including the following:

Insurance-related benefits

• Business Health Insurance: Provides employees with access to healthcare in private hospitals, avoiding waiting lists typical on the NHS. Consultations, scans and treatments are typically included but specific inclusions/exclusions vary greatly. Read more about Business Health Insurance.
• Group Life Insurance: A policy which provides financial support to an employee’s loved-ones in the event of their passing. Typically the lowest cost insurance policy due to the low number claims it attracts. Read more about Group Life Insurance.
• Sick Pay Insurance: AKA Group Income Protection. This policy is designed to provide extra financial support above and beyond statutory sick pay. Also includes practical support to help staff recover and therefore return to work more quickly. Read more about Group Income Protection.
• Health Cash Plan: An underrated insurance scheme which assists employees with their everyday health needs. Usually includes things such as: physiotherapy, osteopathy, counselling, eyecare, dentistry and scans/tests among other things. Read more about Business Health Cash Plans.
• Critical Illness support: Provides financial assistance when an employee is diagnosed with a critical illness or, in some cases, a disability – during the course of the policy term. Read more about Group Critical Illness.
• Dental insurance: Dental care can be included in a wider health insurance policy or purchased as a standalone product. The latter will usually provide a wider scope of coverage. Includes consultations and treatments.
• Eye care insurance: As above but focusing on supporting good eye health. Particularly useful for office workers for whom eyestrain is common.

Wellbeing services

• Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP). EAPs are designed to tackle a wide range of wellbeing issues, with a strong focus on mental health. It’s offered on a digital platform and features tools and guidance designed to promote emotional resilience. 24/7 helplines are usually part of the service. Read more about Employee Assistance Programmes
• Employee benefits platforms: Essentially, digital “one-stop shops” through which perks can be managed and accessed. EAPs (see above) are usually housed within such platforms, but insurance policies and other perks can be managed through them too. Read more about employee benefit platforms.

Lifestyle and rewards

• Retirement benefits: Companies can choose to offer more than is standard in auto-enrol pension schemes. Another option is to offer support with financial planning, a service which is in demand according to Employee Benefits magazine.
• Remote working: Clearly in-demand post-pandemic. It was once considered a “like-to-have” but for some has become an expectation. Many companies offer a combination of in-office and remote working.
• Flexi time: Some businesses allow their employees to do work when it suits them best, rather than insisting on set hours. As with remote working, it would be important to track productivity!
• Extra holiday time: Who wouldn’t appreciate extra paid holiday days? It would certainly be enticing for potential recruits and no doubt help with retention too..
• Parental leave: The birth of a child is obviously a big deal, so any extra support for families will be appreciated by young families.
• Travel expenses: As remote working increases in popularity, ensuring that employees attending the physical workspace are not penalised is even more important.
• Employee discounts: Workplaces can set-up discount schemes especially for their employees. Such schemes are typically included on employee benefits platforms. Read more about employee discount schemes.

…To name a few! What works best for your business will depend on the demographic make-up of your workforce, what you want to achieve, and the budgetary constraints you’re working within.

If you’d like FREE advice from an impartial broker, then contact the friendly team at Hooray on 01273 222805 or email [email protected].

Before you invest in employee benefits…

Hooray Health & Protection is experienced in helping small businesses get the best UK employee benefits package, within budget and tailored to their needs.

The benefits have to be relevant to the nature of your business, how it operates, and the needs and desires of your employees.

When we work with businesses we like to ask them why they want to offer benefits:

• Is it because you’re a growing company and you need to find ways of attracting the best staff?
• Is it because you want to keep the staff you already have?
• Is it because you want to build a greater sense of ‘team’?
• Is it so you can match your competitors?

Then, we need to know more about the workplace. For example:

• What type of work do your staff carry out? (i.e. office-based, manual, outdoors etc)
• What demographic makes up your workforce?

All this information is vital for creating the optimal employee benefits program.

For example, let’s say you have an office-based workforce and the average age is between 25-45. On the first point, we can predict that certain health issues may arise, such as eye strain and back pain.

This immediately signposts which benefits will be most helpful. Free appointments with an optician, a free monthly physio session and flexible working options for parents – will all combine to make a helpful and attractive benefit scheme for your team.

But it’s worth re-reading your list and scrutinising it more. Are there any downsides to this scheme? Am I sure my business can afford this now and in the future?

Once a benefit scheme is put in place, it’s very difficult to takeaway. If it is, it’s likely to have a negative impact on staff morale and their perception of you as an employer.

We consider this one of our most important jobs: making sure the benefits package is going to work for both the business and its employees, now and going forward.

Interesting fact: According to a survey by Aviva, annual leave is the most in-demand employee benefit. 44% identified it as one of the workplace benefits of greatest interest to them. A company pension (41%) and flexible work (39%) came second and third.

Source: Daily Telegraph

How an employee benefits broker can help (or hinder!)

A lot of insurance brokers will promise to get the right deal for you. But businesses need to be wary. Some brokers will have relationships with just one or two insurance companies and so are not working across the whole market to deliver the best deals.

Meanwhile, if you go direct to an insurance company, they will be inclined to guide you down their preferred path. That means, not necessarily the best deal for you, but the best one for them – and they can be incredibly convincing: fast-talking, heavy with jargon and keen to hurry the deal along.

Hooray Health & Protection does things in a simpler, more transparent and considered way. We are guided by your needs as a small business owner. We’ll work with you to get the best deal so that achieve the right mix of employee perks (within budget!) which provide the optimal benefit for employee and business alike.

We don’t believe in big fees, and we’re happy to chat with you for as long as you need before you make a decision. We understand how important this process is, and how tricky it can be to decide what to go for, which is why you have our constant support and patience.

Source: Society for Human Resource Management

Both business and employee stand to benefit

Get it right, and it’s not just the employee who reaps the benefits – the company does too. What helps the individual will help the business. A happy employee is usually a more productive worker and will have less days off sick. A cared-for employee will be more loyal to the business, decreasing staff churn. And your company will become a more enticing prospect for skilled workers.

Some packages even cover immediate family, so they have the comfort of knowing that children and spouses can receive the help they need too. It’s the little things that make employees proud of the company they work for and therefore motivate them to act as advocates for the business.

A happy employee will also recommend the company as a good place to work. They’ll also be more enthusiastic about the product you offer and mention it to friends and family.

Talk to our team today and we’ll advise you on the best benefits package.