Hooray wins Advice Firm of the Year 2024!

Hooray bagged four awards at the prestigious Health & Protection Awards 2024, including the most coveted award of all: Advice Firm of the Year.

Was it bribery?

Catchy branding?

Or friends in high places?

The mundane reality is hard work and dedication, as Mike Hesch, our Head of UK Employee Benefits, explains in this blog post.

A recipe for success

“We’ve won these awards because our entries tell a good story about the service we deliver to clients,” says Mike, pictured above.

“We currently stand out in the market because few brokers do the kind of work we do when it comes to the ongoing administration of policies.

“For example, we manage new joiners or leavers on a policy, rather than send it back to the client to sort for themselves. It’s a significant amount of work we take away from them.”

He says that feedback from clients has always been excellent.

“They say things like ‘your client services couldn’t do more for us’, ‘you always respond very quickly,’ ‘nothing’s too hard’.

“Our approach is never to say we can’t help, it’s to say yes we can help.”

A celebration of best practice

The Health & Protection Awards is a glitzy celebration of best practice in the health and protection industry where leading insurers and brokers vie for industry recognition.

This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Kevin Bridges, who at one point cried: “Not YOU again!” when Mike Hesch returned to claim another award on behalf of the team.

We were delighted to win:

• Best Small Protection Advice Firm
• Best Sales & Retention Advice Team
• Best Small Health Insurance Advice Firm
• Advice Firm of the Year

Best Small Protection Advice Firm:

When the industry mentions the term ‘protection’ we’re essentially talking about financial protection products, such as life insurance, income protection, critical illness cover and disability insurance.

Hooray, founded by Charlie Cousins, received the award for not only assisting SMEs in finding the most suitable protection policies but also ensuring their employees were informed about these policies once they were in place.

Some companies have very complex requirements which few brokers support. These can include complex multi-country schemes. We’re able to help companies as they expand globally by drawing on our global network of brokers and knowledge of international policies.

And we don’t just arrange policies, we offer an ongoing partnership, answering any client queries along the way, providing admin support and reviewing all policies at time of renewal.

Best Sales & Retention Advice Team:

A 98% client retention rate is strong evidence of our ongoing success in looking after clients. Initially, our advisors help clients find the best policies for their business and review any current policies in place. We take into account policy pricing, what competitors are offering and any specific coverage requirements from the client.

Thereafter, our consultants and client services team leap into action, ensuring that policies work smoothly.

When a policy comes up for renewal, we review the policy and seek out any alternatives that might bring better value. It’s about ensuring our clients are on the best deal, now and in the future.

Best Small Health Insurance Advice Firm:

Company Health Insurance policies are always the most challenging to arrange and manage. Many companies have previously suffered with poor service and complicated admin requirements.

When we encounter these situations, we begin by working out where the problems lie, and how we can make the whole experience easier for everyone involved and, ultimately, ensure a company gains real value out of a policy they’ve often invested significant funds into.

This is exactly the kind of situation that Chloe Young encountered while helping one particular client.

Chloe, one of our Employee Benefits Consultants, worked with a client who was facing an 80% increase on their premium. At the same time, service levels were poor with one or two formally logged complaints from employees every month. Calls were taking days to be returned, causing delays to diagnosis and treatment.

Issues were even being raised with the ombudsman!

Chloe worked with both the insurer and the company to get to the root cause of the problems and, ultimately iron out all the issues.

She arranged workshops and webinars with staff, and even a nurse-led health check.

We succeeded in reducing their premium increase by 20%, solved the various service problems they faced and took away the admin issues they were dealing with.

The company is now on a private health scheme that is well-managed, affordable, sustainable and being used as intended.

Advice Firm of the Year

This is the biggie. Amongst all the brokers in the UK (and there are quite a few!), we were adjudged the very best in 2024.

As Mike mentioned earlier, this really is down to the way we commit to customer service at every level. This includes working with a client’s HR team (or whoever else is responsible for the employee benefits at a company), assisting their employees and liaising with the insurer themselves – to ensure that policies work exactly as they should.

Need assistance with your employee benefits policies?

If you’re a business looking to set up an employee benefits policy or review any current arrangements you have in place, then contact our friendly experts for a free quotation service and one-to-one fact-finding call.

We’re always happy to help, wherever you are on your employee benefits journey. Simply call 01273 222805 or email [email protected].