Employee benefits

Employers are facing an increasingly competitive battle for talent. Employee benefits are a highly effective and important component of any reward package. However, simply offering a range of benefits to employees is no longer enough.

Are they really valued and used by your people? How can your benefits package address the day-to-day concerns in your people's lives, which may impact their performance, and give them a clearer sense of the full value of being part of your business?

Making smarter selections in the product providers you use will open up a much broader range of benefits, often at no extra cost, while also ensuring you aren’t unnecessarily duplicating certain benefits, such as access to an employee assistance programme.

A combined strategy should focus on communication, and making the most of your current and potential future schemes. Do your people know that an income protection scheme may also give them access to a virtual GP service, mental health support, and discount portals, as well as workshops and digital content to help improve day to day living and more? Supporting employees' health and wellbeing can also improve their productivity. Focusing on the ‘value to employees’ ensures that you maximise the usage and appreciation of the benefit.

We can support you to enhance your current offering in a standalone project, or develop an ongoing relationship, ensuring your benefits remain market-leading.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

As a business owner, you need to make sure that your business is protected, so you’ve no doubt insured your buildings, contents, stock and materials. However, it’s just as important to consider business protection for your biggest asset - yourself and your key employees.

Protect the future of your business

To secure your business' future, you need to consider whether it could continue to trade or would suffer financially if it lost a key employee. Do you have the cash flow to replace any loss of profit or repay outstanding loans?

With a simple fact-finding process, which would include a liability audit to truly understand your financial risks, we can help you safeguard your business using recognised, insurance products. The liability audit highlights the need for business protection cover to provide the funds should a financial loss occur or a key person pass away, become critically or temporarily ill or permanently disabled, to:

• repay any business loans
• cover the short-term loss of profit
• recruit a replacement person
• allow the business to support someone who's unable to work.

Business protection is a valuable exercise for any business to carry out, whether you’re a sole trader, partner, shareholder or director. Our team of experts will help you complete and tailor a plan to meet your business-specific needs. Our team of consultants are here to help you identify these unexplored risks or review your current arrangements to ensure they remain aligned to the existing business risks.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Financial wellbeing is becoming a key focus for many employers, given the impact it has on their employees’ productivity and presentiment. Many studies have shown that financial stress can have a serious impact on a company’s bottom line.

Supporting financial wellbeing for your employees

Providing benefits such as life assurance, income protection and critical illness will give employees a stronger sense of confidence in their own financial circumstance. This will, in turn, give the employer a more productive workforce.

Group life assurance

The life assurance market comes with many obstacles that, unless managed and reviewed regularly, may lead to unknown liabilities for the employer and the deceased’s family alike. Our expertise will ensure that there are no hidden surprises, providing both employer and employee peace of mind in the event of a claim.

Group income protection

We ensure that the underlying rehabilitation and wellness services that are embedded in these policies are honed and utilised to best effect to support employers. Aiming to reduce spend already being directed into areas such as occupational health, as well HR time.

Group critical illness

Group critical illness pays a tax-free lump sum directly to an employee should they, their spouse or partner (if covered) or child, suffer any of a list of defined medical conditions or surgical procedures, classified as critical illnesses (eg cancer, heart attack, stroke).

Personal accident

Our personal accident policy varies, but a specific lump sum benefit is payable subject to the severity and result of an accident, for example personal injury. There is often an element of cover for accidental death too, and employees can be covered on a worldwide basis.

Travel

Business travel is invaluable if you have a mobile workforce, and will cover the many risks associated with travel, which we can tailor to specific client needs where required, designed with your travel patterns in mind. To fully complement a benefits package, we own the technology to house any programme online, be this as a simple communication or a fully-fledged flexible benefits package. We provide consultancy and administration services for the full suite of risk benefits, which can help ease this individual financial burden.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

The job market has changed significantly in the past decade. People no longer stay in one position, with one set of benefits, for a long period of time. It is having a huge impact on businesses who, due to the apprenticeship levy, must invest heavily in the training and development of employees, only for them to move on within a couple of years. High staff turnover is unsettling for any organisation and it also affects other employees, potentially leading them to seek out new pastures.

Simply matching your competitors’ benefit offerings is one thing; but when your benefits package stands out, it can make a big difference. Every employee will have different priorities at different points in their life, and by facilitating a choice of benefits, you can offer what's important to them right now.

A flexible benefits scheme can attract and retain talent

Offering this choice empowers your people to personalise their individual benefits and lifestyle. This, in turn, will help drive a culture of sustained employee engagement.

What makes our service different from similar offerings is that it is driven and supported by technical specialists who will partner with you to develop a unique, flexible benefits program that supports the specific objectives of your organisation. Our wellbeing hub utilises a bespoke online platform that enables organisations to offer flexible benefits to their employees in a cost-effective and seamless manner.

Our approach to flexible benefit plans is simple: we understand that each client’s needs are different, so we seek to identify and understand what it is that you need from us to make your vision a reality. We do this by focusing on you and your corporate values. We listen and make our recommendations in a jargon-free manner. Our aim is to deliver a market-leading flexible benefit platform that will focus offering your people the benefits that are important to them.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Multi-national businesses continue to grow and expand into existing and new territories. Very few of these organisations are aware of their global benefits spend and, indeed, what this spend looks like.

Fewer still consider smart ways of consolidating their global benefits to create significant savings and coordinate global strategy.

Implementing effective global programmes for your business

Our global benefits strategy team specialises in global underwriting, which allows a multinational to use a single insurance carrier globally to insure part, if not all, of its benefits provision, including life assurance, disability, accident and medical, dependant on the carrier.

In order to implement a global underwriting solution, we work with our clients through a six-stage cycle, involving your organisation's key stakeholders:

1 The discovery phase

Understanding an organisation’s objectives, business structures, key stakeholders and a detailed schedule of events.

2 The inventory

A global inventory providing a detailed understanding of existing global benefits.

3 Benchmarking

A review of existing benefits against normal practice within each country.

4 Design

Consideration of the regulatory environment within each country and best practice in providing the benefits.

5 Implementation

Provision of global underwriting terms and their staged implementation by country.

6 Review

Constant review and support across all implemented policies, maintenance of compliant programmes and management of a centralised portal.

We consult and advise multinationals who seek to understand their in-country benefits, to create cost savings, improved governance and robust central reporting, allowing these employers to implement effective global programmes.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Physical and mental wellbeing is a key ingredient to a productive workforce and has been high on employers’ agendas for many years. The greater awareness and understanding of mental health through medical advancement and media coverage has led to many employers implementing preventive strategies to help employees manage anxiety, stress and depression, among many other associated healthcare issues.

Providing the optimal healthcare benefits for your employees

We understand the importance that employees place on access to private treatment, and we work with employers with the ultimate outcome of providing competitive and sustainable health insurance schemes.

Our incisive interaction throughout the year provides a flight path for the following renewal, tracking claims against budget, considering trends and making sure the most sensible approach to each claim is pursued. It also means that there are no surprises at year-end that could lead to you scrabbling around for budget and a knee-jerk revision to the current contract.

Our expertise and experience in this field, coupled with the facility of professional tax advice makes us well placed to provide end-to-end advice with the ultimate aim of cost-saving and price sustainability.

Wouldn’t it be nice to take control of your spend and safeguard you and your employees for dramatic increases in the future? Through our whole-market approach and smart consultancy, we will guide you through the complexities of the products available and find a solution that is right for your business.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

With the increasing levels of employee pension contributions required due to auto-enrolment, together with HMRC confirming their on-going support for pensions salary sacrifice, there’s never been a better time to implement a new arrangement. Annual National Insurance savings can reach tens or even hundreds of thousands of points, which can be reinvested in the benefits provided to employees.

Cutting the cost of pension salary sacrifice

While employee pension contributions receive tax relief, both employers and employees pay National Insurance on them. Pension salary sacrifice is an HMRC-approved method that simply changes the way contributions are made so that both the employer and employees save money with no reduction in the amount paid to the pension each month.

When implementing a new arrangement, there is a lot for employers to consider. For instance:

• How will you ensure that employees fully understand and appreciate the new arrangement?
• How should you structure the arrangement in the most appropriate way?
• How should you treat certain groups of employees, such as low earners, high earners, or those over state pension age?

We provide our clients with a detailed report that outlines all the key considerations, working with you to design and implement a scheme that’s right for your business. Crucially, we will also obtain HMRC clearance for your arrangements to allow you to demonstrate compliance.

Our salary sacrifice consultancy will help you to implement an effective arrangement that is understood and appreciated by your employees.

• Scheme design workshop
• Savings modelling
• Detailed employer report, outlining key considerations
• Full set of employee communications
• HMRC clearance
• On-going documentation updates and consultancy

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Every employer’s corporate strategy should be underpinned by a robust and meaningful benefits provision to help attract and retain employees. This should apply to any business regardless of size. We know smaller employers often struggle to find the budget provision to offer their employees anything outside of the mandatory pension provision, given the associated costs of advice and premium spend. That's why we offer small business employee benefits solutions.

Small business employee solutions with affordable and sustainable benefits
A full market review can cost an organisation a considerable amount of money. What makes us different from other providers offering small business employee benefits packages is that we have undertaken a full tender response with the Group Life and Group Income Protection markets to understand what each of our insurance partners can offer to ensure the lowest and most sustainable costs.

We offer our full benefits consultancy service at a competitive cost, offering:

• competitive pricing with longer rate guarantees
• dedicated teams to support smaller businesses
• dedicated claims support services
• simple on-boarding processes
• embedded additional services available to employees.

Our team will complete the renewal, prepare accounts and advise of any additional requirements concerning medical underwriting, but we do not cease engagement there. We will be hands on throughout the year to deal with the various challenges that your business may face. From support on claims, changes to business structures or changes in legislation that impact your arrangements.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Providing employees with a well-designed and engaging pension scheme remains at the heart of any employee benefits package. With increasing focus on compliance, employers should ensure there are no underlying issues they are unaware of, while doing all they can to ensure their workplace pension scheme is as effective as it can be.

A comprehensive workplace pension scheme solution

We can help you to provide a compliant, effective and engaging workplace pension scheme for your employees.

Our governance services can answer questions such as:

• Is your scheme provider offering value for money?
• How well are the scheme investments performing?
• Are there any issues with the scheme you are unaware of?
• Are you effectively engaging employees to help them understand and appreciate the benefit?
• Are you fully compliant?

Our workplace pension scheme governance reviews provide a detailed report and in-depth discussion to assess the scheme and consider any wider changes in the pensions landscape. Our compliance checks ensure auto-enrolment declarations of compliance and contributions certifications are up-to-date and completed correctly, and that employee communications meet the statutory requirements.

Our comprehensive consultancy and advice services help you to manage your pension schemes and engage your employees on their journey to retirement. We also provide administrative support, a member helpline and a scheme handbook, and we can deliver presentations and surgeries to answer any questions your employees may have about their pension.

• Annual scheme reviews
• On-going administration support
• Compliance support
• Member helpline and scheme handbook
• Member presentations, seminars and 1-2-1 meetings
• Process guidance
• Provider relationship management
• Hot topic alerts
• Legislative updates
• Scheme design and market reviews

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

When buying or selling all or part of a business, you need to consider employee benefits. Proactively managing the people aspect of any deal, including benefits, will help ensure an engaged workforce – and add value to the deal. Overlooking them can have a huge impact on how a deal progresses.

If a group of employees are joining or leaving a business, existing benefits may need to be re-negotiated, which could see the cost rise or fall, depending on scheme demographics. Some benefits may no longer be viable post-transaction if the scheme profile changes beyond a certain level, and so the impact of any transfer needs to be fully understood as early as possible. A range of contractual benefits must be maintained, so determining the accurate cost is crucial. Effective negotiation with existing benefit suppliers before any sale can help to lower the costs of providing benefits.

It's crucial that conversations around people-risk start at the beginning of the project. Our support can be provided at every stage of a transaction:

Pre-transaction

We offer a comprehensive pre-transaction due diligence assessment that will help ensure benefits are best placed to support a successful transaction.

During the transaction

Our support can help deliver a smooth process, with the benefit obligations transferred to any buyer. We can help prepare the necessary data and provide benefit replication along with (if necessary) integration services; carrying out market reviews and establishing new schemes as required; or negotiating with existing suppliers to integrate new employees into current arrangements.

Post-transaction support

Once a transaction has completed, we can build a long-term partnership to help an employer ensure their employee benefits continue to be well-managed and best-designed to help them meet their objectives.

We can also highlight risks relating to the employee benefits that have the potential to impact a deal, and help ensure steps are taken to mitigate these. Deals can often be delayed or impacted by something coming to light late in the process, so effective due diligence is key.

Contact Ben Rowntree or Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.

Electric vehicle (EV) leasing schemes are an effective option for organisations looking to reduce costs while offering an attractive benefit that boosts recruitment and retention. 

With numerous new providers and complex, and ever-changing tax regulations, navigating the options can be time-intensive – potentially delaying the decisions needed to launch a scheme. We’ve reviewed the market and can share our expertise to ensure you're confident in your chosen partner. We'll clarify the benefits and risks, empowering you and your employees to make informed decisions.

A key element of our offering is a workshop and follow-up report on all aspects of electric vehicle leasing schemes. The analysis includes insight on potential savings, upcoming changes to the electric vehicle landscape, the benefits, risks, and hidden costs (for both employers and employees), and a high-level summary of the key tax and accounting considerations. The report will also include supplier comparisons and due diligence to help engage a suitable provider.

Other support we can provide for implementing electric vehicle schemes includes:

• creating a business case 
• project-managing the implementation in conjunction with the lease provider  
• delivering communications to employees  
• providing practical guidance on complex areas, such as the impact of parental leave on leases
• integrating the scheme into your wider benefits package (eg, online benefits platform)
• introducing you to our wider tax and accounting teams for specialist advice as necessary. 

These action will help you implement a new scheme fully aware of the key considerations supported by our market review due diligence. You'll come out with a leasing scheme that enhances the financial wellbeing of your people and not expose them to unforeseen risks.

Contact Laurie Eggleston to discuss how we can work together.