At this time of year, many HR professionals and company owners review their Employee Benefits Programmes, to ensure they are still fit for purpose. The pandemic and consequential lockdowns have focused attention on employees’ health and wellbeing and gaps in cover may have been identified since the last review.There are numerous products that can be included in an Employee Benefits Programme, so who should you contact for advice?

Top of your list is likely to be an Employee Benefits Specialist, who can help save you time and effort in your search for the most appropriate benefits for your programme. Some of the advantages of using an employee benefits specialist are as follows:

Quality Market Research

Using its expertise and experience, the specialist will research the market on your behalf and make independent product recommendations, based on your unique requirements.

Ongoing Support

In addition to helping the seamless implementation of your chosen products, the specialist’s account managers and claims team will be on hand to assist with your queries and those of your staff, throughout the year.

Annual Premium Negotiation

Prior to the annual renewal of your cover, the specialist will review the market and, where necessary, negotiate the renewal premium with your insurer, to make sure you continue to enjoy best value for money.

Most Services are Free

A good employee benefits specialist will provide most services free of charge, as they will receive a commission from insurers and providers with whom they place business.

Competitive Premiums

The premiums you pay will be the same, or often lower than going direct, due to the negotiating power of the specialist and the robust specialist-insurer business relationship.

If you’re planning to review your employee benefits programme this year, using the services of an employee benefits specialist should save you time and money and help you build a programme that meets your company’s goals, whilst supporting the health and wellbeing of your employees.

Your company’s best asset is its employees, but most will have experienced some challenges to their physical and mental wellbeing over the last 12 months including;

- Working from home

- Lack of social contact

- Childcare and/or Eldercare issues

- Loss of loved ones

- Illness

- Furlough

- Reduced hours

- Higher workloads

The majority of your staff will have shown great resilience to the challenges thrown at them, but some will have coped less well and will have been supported to some degree by your health and wellbeing programme.

Your employees have worked hard to support your business during this difficult time, so how can you reward them in a relatively cost-effective way?

One idea is to introduce a staff discount scheme, commonly known as Employee Perks. It is one of the more recent innovations in employee benefits, having been around for a decade, or so, and is gaining in popularity. There are now several companies offering this type of benefit in the UK.

Members of an Employee Perks scheme will enjoy discounts in areas such as;

- Coffee Shops & Restaurants

- Supermarkets

- Fashion Retailers

- Technology

- Mobile Phone Contracts / Insurance

- Utility Bills

- Holidays

- Cinemas

- Days Out

The schemes have more recently developed to support the physical and mental health of employees by including access to 24/7 GP helplines, employee assistance programmes, wellbeing apps and discounted gym memberships.

The addition of an Employee Perks scheme to your health and wellbeing programme may be a great way of rewarding your staff, who have helped your business perform at its best, during a particularly tough period.

Your company should also benefit from increased productivity, due to improved staff engagement, resulting from the scheme's introduction.

Over the last 12 months, everyone’s life has been affected to a greater or lesser degree by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sadly, some have lost loved ones to the virus, whilst others may have had the virus themselves and are suffering after-effects, commonly known as long-COVID.

Through no fault of their own, many employees will have been put on furlough and others will have lost their jobs due to business drying up. For a large percentage of the workforce, home working has become the norm, even if their home set up might not be ideal.

Human beings are a social species and the lack of social interaction with colleagues, family and friends during lockdown, has meant that people haven’t been getting their normal level of access to their support networks.

As a consequence of all the above, levels of anxiety have been increasing and the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 are huge. According to the Office for National Statistics, mental health conditions were responsible for 12.8% of all days lost through sickness absence in the UK in 2018.* Due to the events of the last 12 months, that percentage is likely to rise much further.

So, what can employers do to maintain and improve the health and wellbeing of their workforces during these difficult times?

Responsible employers can review their current Health and Wellbeing Programmes to ensure they are still providing appropriate support to their employees.

One essential element of a good Health and Wellbeing Programme is the Employee Assistance Programme, also known as an EAP.

EAPs have been around for a long time, with the first support programmes for employees believed to have been established in the US in 1917** but they have become increasingly popular in the UK in recent years.

A typical EAP provides professional support 24 hours-a-day and employees (and their dependants) can make contact by phone, web chat, text or email.

Some of the more common matters discussed include: -

- Death & Bereavement

- Furlough and Redundancy

- Financial and Legal Matters

- Childcare and Eldercare

- Relationships

- Workplace conflict

More comprehensive EAPs offer face-to-face counselling sessions, which might be substituted for online (video) or phone therapy sessions during lockdown.

As you would expect, the service is completely confidential.

An EAP can be implemented relatively quickly, allowing you to start supporting the mental health of your workforce within days. The service should be regularly promoted to your employees to encourage them to utilize it in time of need.

An employer can expect a high return on investment (ROI) from an EAP in terms of increased productivity due to reduced absenteeism. According to the EAPA's calculator, a company introducing an EAP in the services industry in the North West, covering 300 employees and paying £8.85/head with a 15% usage rate can expect a return of £9.14 for each £1.00 spent.

If you're planning to include an EAP in your Health and Wellbeing programme, contact MEC today to speak with one of our experts.

Sources:

*Office for National Statistics – Sickness absence in the UK labour market – Released 6th November 2019.

**The Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) - History of EAPs

When designing an Employee Benefits Programme, it is best practice to involve your employees in the process. If you don't, your staff may feel undervalued and might dislike your choice of benefits, meaning you are unlikely to attain your business goals.

You may be looking at the following areas to help improve your company’s productivity and profitability:

- Attracting and retaining high calibre staff
- Reducing absenteeism
- Maintaining and improving your employees’ physical and mental health
- Meeting statutory Health and Wellbeing obligations
- Improving staff morale

When you have a clear idea of what your senior management is looking to achieve, it is time to involve your employees. One idea is to conduct a staff survey to ascertain which employee benefits are of interest to them. Provide your employees with a list of benefits, including a brief description of each and ask them to confirm their favourites in descending order.

The results of the survey are likely to be determined by the demographics of your company. Younger employees are likely to socialise more and therefore lean towards a Staff Discount Scheme (also known as Employee Perks) which allows employees to enjoy discounts on coffee, restaurant meals, food and fashion shopping, days out, gym membership etc.

Employees who play sport might like the idea of a Health Cash Plan which will provide them with cash back towards physiotherapy sessions, complementary therapies, specialist consultations and diagnostic tests. Opticians’ fees, prescribed glasses and contacts and dental check-ups are also included in a cash plan.

Staff members with partners and young families will have different priorities and benefits such as Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection Insurance will to be more attractive to them.

As employees become older, health becomes a higher priority and benefits such as Health Assessments and Private Medical Insurance will appeal to more mature members of staff.

Companies trading internationally will require International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) for their overseas staff. The benefit is also attractive to employees of firms, particularly those based in the City of London, who demand the additional healthcare benefits that IPMI provides, including access to private maternity facilities, health checks, private GP consultations, dental, optical and chronic conditions cover.

Armed with the feedback from employees, you can employ the services of an Employee Benefits specialist, to obtain costings for each benefit and determine which ones will help you achieve your company goals within your budget. Your draft Employee Benefits Programme can then be presented to senior management, safe in the knowledge that the benefits will be appreciated by your workforce.

The UK’s international health insurers might be in for a bumper year in 2021 as demand is likely to grow for the following reasons...

Brexit Transition Period Comes to an End

In the New Year, the UK will have come to the end of the Brexit Transition period and it has already signed trade agreements with over 25 countries and blocs and is considering many more. Some of these will be “Continuity Trade Agreements” which aim to mirror existing EU trade agreements, but some will be brand new – The UK is prioritizing negotiations with Australia, New Zealand and Japan and is also considering joining the “Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership”, thankfully also known as the CPTPP.*

With the increase in opportunities that international trade deals bring, employees sent to develop these new markets will require international medical insurance to protect their health during their time overseas.

European Health Insurance Card

The future of the European Health Insurance card (EHIC) is in doubt. If this card is no longer available from 1st January 2021 and no reciprocal healthcare arrangements are put in place with the EU (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland), short-term travellers will be wise to purchase travel insurance with a good level of health cover and expatriates may be forced to purchase local or international health insurance.

Mandatory Healthcare

There appears to be a trend for countries with large expatriate populations to make health insurance mandatory for temporary visitors and residents. One of the main reasons behind this is to stop expatriates becoming a burden on the host country’s healthcare system, with non-payment of expatriates’ medical bills being cited as a major problem.

We have seen this over the last few years in the Middle East e.g. Abu Dhabi and Dubai and more recently in Thailand. More countries might follow suit for the same reasons, which could provide new opportunities for international health insurers.

* www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-uks-trade-agreements