BRAVEday Blog

Employee insurance is the key to a world-class workforce

Written by Ami Nathan | Aug 9, 2017 8:28:00 PM

It’s tough to keep a hold on key talent these days. People expect more from their workplaces, and company loyalty has been put on the backburner in place of flexibility.

But some businesses manage to retain the best and brightest. It’s due in large part to their employee insurance benefits.

Employee insurance benefits aren’t just a great moral choice; they also ensure that your staff feel valued, appreciated and protected––and your business benefits a great deal from that kind of morale.

If you want lower staff turnover and less recruitment hassle, then you need an employee insurance policy. Dean Young has a few tips on how to get the best value:

Read more: 5 Unexpected Business Risks That Could Sink Your Company

 

Employee benefits

If you can provide health insurance, income protection, trauma coverage, and/or any of the other myriad options available to companies, you are providing something of serious value to your employees. That gives them one more reason to stick around for the long haul.

Not only that, but it also ensures that they get back on their feet faster if they do become sick. It’s not just an ethical choice; it’s a smart business decision too.

 

Consider a group medical insurance scheme

If you have a team of 15 or more people, you have a great opportunity to provide not just regular employee insurance, but portable employee insurance that is free of a pre-existing conditions clause too.

Yes, one of the most difficult personal insurance hurdles can simply be waived away if your company joins a group scheme with 15 or more staff members. Not only that, but often that same cover, with the same waiver, can be transferred over to the employee in question even if they leave your employment. You can imagine how valuable that would be to the average New Zealander, and by providing such benefits, you can attract and retain the most valuable people around.

By providing such benefits, you can attract and retain the most valuable people around.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is the number of people in your scheme does have to remain at 15 or more in most cases, and people have to join at the first opportunity if they want to get the pre-existing conditions waiver. Ensure your staffing levels remain relatively stable if you want to keep the same cover when it comes time to renew.

On the portability front, it’s also important to check your policy wording to ensure that it is definitely possible to transfer the ownership of the policy to an employee if they leave your employment. At BRAVEday, we generally make sure the insurers we recommend always include this.

One last thing: if you want to get a group scheme for trauma, life or income protection insurance, you’d need to aim for about 100 or more people in your business. It’s definitely worth investigating if you’re a larger company, but smaller companies may need an alternative if they can’t meet the 100-person prerequisite.

 

It doesn’t have to be expensive

Often, companies think that employee benefits are extremely expensive; some kind of luxury addition for their staff that only a few big businesses can afford.

But the reality is that they don’t have to be expensive—there are all kinds of different packages available, and multiple levels of cover. If you only want to ensure the most senior positions in your company, you can do that. If you want to give everybody at least a basic level of cover, you can do that. If you want to only provide health insurance for one set of workers, but health and income protection for another, you can do that.

But the reality is that they don’t have to be expensive—there are all kinds of different packages available, and multiple levels of cover.

As long as you shop around and get the best deals, it is perfectly possible to find some robust—but still affordable—employee benefit cover.

 

Summary

Employee benefits are the key to maintaining a world-class workforce. Whether you want to protect your business from losing an important worker, or attract the best and brightest in your industry, having the right cover for your enterprise can be the difference between rough seas and smooth sailing.

 

For more information on your business insurance, check out our free ebook below.