For practice owners looking to attract and retain great staff, offering an attractive employment benefits package is essential. While a competitive salary is an obvious factor, other incentives that support an individual's financial planning can also be included.

What are employee benefits?

Employee benefits are usually defined as an addition to an employee's salary. These benefits include Pension, Income Protection, Group Life Insurance & Critical Illness Cover, Private Medical Insurance, and Employee Assistance Programmes.

Importance of employee benefits

Employee benefits are important in many respects. As a practice, providing them can differentiate you from other local practices. In a time when recruiting and retaining staff is becoming more challenging, they can be invaluable. When a potential employee or associate is considering joining a practice, the employee benefits will be one of the factors they account for when applying for or accepting a role. A comprehensive package can help you stand out and convey the business culture of caring about and supporting staff. You can also tailor your employment benefit package to meet the needs of different employees, depending on seniority. Associates don't tend to fall into the employee benefits category if they are self-employed. Offering them access to the same professionals that set up your employee benefits package can be invaluable and promote loyalty to you and your practice.

1. Pension

It is a legal requirement for employers to provide employees with a workplace pension. For those in your team who do not qualify for an NHS pension, contributing beyond the legal requirement of 3% employers' contribution or even being able to match an employee's contribution is a way of standing out from other employers.

2. Income Protection

Income Protection pays a proportion of an individual's salary if they're unable to work due to injury or illness. Employers can buy a Group Income Protection scheme to enrol their employees into.

3. Group Life Insurance & Critical Illness Cover

Group Life Insurance, often called ‘Death in Service' benefit, offers financial protection to nominated individuals of an employee if they die while employed. Employees can nominate who they want to receive the benefit through an ‘expression of wish' form. Critical Illness Cover provides a lump sum to an employee following a diagnosis of a pre-agreed critical illness. Conditions that are covered can include heart attack, organ failure, and some forms of cancer.

4. Private Medical Insurance

Offering health insurance and wellness programmes can provide employees with the required medical care, potentially reducing the time your employees take off. As with Income Protection, Life Insurance, and Critical Illness Cover, Private Medical Insurance can also be purchased as a Group Policy. Employers not looking to provide full medical coverage could also look at cash plans, allowing employees to claim some of the cost for optical, dental, and chiropractic treatment.

5. Employee Assistance Programme

An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provides employees with access to health and wellbeing services such as counselling, mental health support, legal, and financial advice, amongst other provisions. This type of support can provide preventative care if an employee has stressful personal circumstances, and consequently help avoid sickness absence.

6. What can be done outside the workplace?

Providing support to help employees in their personal lives, such as offering financial planning services like those provided by our Chartered Financial Advisers, can help employees achieve personal and professional goals. This can create stability and growth in their financial lives, reducing financial pressures that may affect their professional performance.

Summary

If you don't currently offer employee benefits, other than those you are obliged to provide, such as a pension, it may be worth considering putting an affordable package together that offers benefits such as longer-term sick pay or a death-in-service policy for employees. These policies, which can cost your business a relatively small amount of money, can provide employees with the knowledge that they and their families will be looked after in the worst-case scenario.

The benefits discussed in this article are not just limited to employees. As a practice owner, you can replace some benefits you may have lost when moving from NHS work to private practice, such as a death-in-service policy, Income Protection, and Private Medical Insurance. You may have also lost access to some, if not all, contributions to an NHS pension scheme. This is a valuable benefit that needs to be replaced to meet longer-term retirement goals.

To book an appointment today to discuss Employee Benefits Packages or any other aspect of your financial planning discussed in this article, scan the QR code below.

Alternatively, please call: 01823 250750.

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