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In today's competitive business landscape, companies around the world are reassessing their policies and working environments after the COVID-19 pandemic tore up traditional working practices.
Recruitment is both expensive and disruptive for any business, so it’s no wonder that employers are eager to foster a more supportive work environment and benefit package to forge good employee relationships.
Our employee benefits business have found our clients taking a more proactive approach to reviewing the benefits they offer their employees and becoming more interested in the ‘add on‘ features that many Insurance Providers are now including with their policies, particularly around mental health support.
We take exceptional care in reviewing all aspects of the available policies to ensure we can guide employers to a tailored insurance packages that their employees value, and most importantly, use.
How can you support your employees?
Healthcare Benefits: Many employers offer insurance covering medical and dental plans for their employees and sometimes their families. Of course, it can be invaluable for the employee to be able to access medical diagnosis and treatment if the need arises, but also a potential benefit to the business if their time away from work can be reduced by accessing treatment sooner than waiting for it on the NHS.
Income protection plans: if an employee is off work longer-term due to illness, what do you do? As a responsible employer you may want to be able to continue to support them financially at what may be a difficult time, but if you need to recruit a replacement, it could be cost prohibitive. An income protection plan provides a benefit from which you can keep paying the absent employee a proportion of their salary, allowing you to recruit and pay for their replacement.
There are mandatory benefits for some employees in the UK, but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer a more generous entitlement to help recruit and retain the best people for your business. Paid annual leave, pension contributions and parental leave (maternity and paternity) are all examples where employees may value a more generous entitlement; adding to their overall job satisfaction, productivity and professionalism – all of which are also good for your business.
Flexible Work Arrangements: Covid changed many peoples priorities, and around work/life balance in particular. Lockdowns enabled those in job roles that allowed for it, to spend time more meaningfully than on a daily commute, or to live somewhere they couldn’t if they needed to travel to their place of work on a daily basis. Whilst there has been some ‘return to office’, it remains popular with employees to have options such as remote (or hybrid) work, flexible hours, or compressed workweeks to help balance work and personal life.
Mental Health Support: An Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) gives access to counselling and other resources for mental health and personal issues. It’s hard to not be aware of the prevalence of mental health issues, or of the criticisms of the waiting times for treatment, so these programs can be a vital support for an employee who is physically well, but otherwise struggling.
Senga Jones Business Support Manger Alexander Beard International Benefits (UK) Ltd