What do your people really want from their benefits?
Getting the right mix of Employee Benefits for your business can be tricky. In fact, it can often feel like a minefield of expensive insurance policies, a multitude of cycle to work schemes and complex calculations for using electricity for electric company cars. You know that a pension is a must and want to offer something else but what do your team really want?
If a package of benefits is to do what you want it to do, in other words, attract talent, keep your existing team happy and deliver productivity and value for money for your business, then perhaps it’s about getting to the heart of what’s affecting the lives of your people and how your benefits can help.
The last few pandemic years have left the healthcare system in the UK at almost breaking point. Getting an appointment with a GP is near impossible. The core issue is a shortage of GPs and as more GPs retire or leave their jobs this leads to more pressure on the GPs who are left (Source: Slugger O’Toole). An Online GP benefit gives you video or phone access to a GP on the same day and gets your staff the medical support and help that they need quickly and without hassle. It can be set up as part of a Private Medical Insurance (PMI) scheme or stand-alone.
The cost of living crisis means that many people are having to make tough decisions about where and what to spend the money on that they earn. Going to the optician or dentist is becoming a luxury as the importance of purchasing everyday necessities takes precedence. Employers that offer a Health Cash Plan give their staff the opportunity to claim money back on these routine checks that can make a big difference in health and wellbeing. It’s a straightforward benefit that does what it says on the tin but helps you emphasise the importance of your people looking after themselves to reduced time off for sickness and burnout.
Aligned to this is the growing value of Income Protection. The average UK household has £12,500 in savings (Source: Nimblefins 2022) and if a member of your team is unable to work due to long-term sickness, it wouldn’t take long for this to dwindle to nothing and then paying the mortgage or rent becomes almost impossible. It’s hard to understate the importance of taking this worry away from your team and offering them the knowledge that they will be protected if they can’t bring an income into their household, whilst dealing with illness or incapacity.
Supporting the family of a loved one, should the worst happen, with Life Assurance offers reassurance and a multitude of extras to help your people in life and is a relatively inexpensive policy. Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) that generally come as standard with a Life Assurance policy, offer confidential employee support with counselling and tools to help with emotional and practical issues. All of us face complexities in life from time to time and easy access means that your team have more headspace to focus on work at work.
At The Ink Group, we advise on and administer over 25 different employee benefits and we are keen to help you make the right choice of benefits for the team of people that work for your business. We recognise that each workforce is different and will be affected by bespoke issues. Identify these and the benefits will be received in the most valuable way. Get in touch at hello@theinkgroup.co.uk for more information.