Flexible Benefits

Large companies are increasingly looking to make their benefits more flexible. It is being recognised that employees value different benefits to a different degree. Giving employees a choice of benefits is bound to lead to a greater proportion of employees appreciating the value of their benefit package.

A leading management consultancy recently quoted the consultancy costs alone to setting up a flexible benefits scheme will range between £50,000 and £300,000. The introduction of a full flexible benefit package would be extremely expensive and administratively complicated for many companies.

However, a solution does exist, which combines the advantages of flexible benefits but eliminates their downsides. It allows employees to choose certain benefits suited to their lifestyle but with easy administration and value from the benefit spend for the company.

How it works

Employees are presented with a menu of options to choose from. Each option is designed to suit a different type of employee e.g. single without children, married with dependants. Each option combines elements from a comprehensive range of insured employee benefits (life assurance, income protection, critical illness cover and spouses life cover). For example, a single employee with no children might choose the option that has low life assurance but higher levels of income protection or critical illness cover. An employee with children might choose a different option from the same menu with higher life assurance and lower critical illness cover.

Each option within the menu has the same fixed cost for the employer. So, no matter which option each employee chooses, the employer pays the same amount per employee.

Employees can change their choice when required for instance, after a major lifestyle event (marriage, parenthood) so that their benefits match their changing stages during life. An interactive website is available, which explains the benefits of each option and allows employees to choose the options they want.

Administration

Simplified administration is a key goal and is achieved by utilising the latest technology. There is minimal administration required except where the paper based administration option is selected.

We would be happy to undertake an exercise to review the cost of introducing such a flexible benefits scheme for your company.