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Flexible Benefits (including Total Reward Statements) - now available for SME employers
Traditionally, offering a comprehensive Flexible Benefits package was the domain of the very largest of employers. Only those with upwards of 1,000 staff could begin to afford to offer a range of benefits on a flexible choice basis, and to employ sufficient resource to run these various benefits.
For companies with considerably fewer employees, the likely costs of offering flexible packages would simply have outweighed the benefit.
At RW, we have been able to secure unique terms with the market leading flexible benefits portal provider. By using cutting edge technology, Flexible Benefits can now be accessed by our SME employer clients.
Some of the benefits of offering these arrangements are:
Enhanced employee understanding creates loyalty and aids staff retention
Helps with recruitment
Simplified administration of benefits
Harmonise existing arrangements (including across acquired companies)
Reduced National Insurance through Salary Sacrifice
Control of future expenditure
Target spending on benefits that are actually valued by employees
Additional value from spend
Can tailor pay and benefits to suit current circumstances (and can be reviewed in future)
Avoid strict underwriting requirements due to spread of risk
Improve understanding of benefits and obtain more value from them
Saving money through tax and National Insurance efficiencies
Take advantage of group rate discounts negotiated through the company
Avoid unnecessary spend from duplication of benefit
We find that a well designed and implemented benefits package can be the key to retaining your best employees. Some estimates show that replacement costs for a lost employee can be around 100% of salary (taking into account recruitment fees, training costs, lost productivity before and after the employee leaves and etc). With average 10.4% UK annual resignation rates that’s quite a cost!1
Avoiding the leakage of key talent can be helped by installing a well communicated package that gains employee buy-in and loyalty.
Additionally, the impending introduction of compulsory workplace pensions and auto enrolment legislation in the UK creates the need for employers to keep comprehensive records to prove that they are complying with the rules (or risk a fine of up to £10,000 per day). The system we offer can help you maintain these records, which we believe will be an essential requirement for employers as early as 2012.
What service do RW provide?
We offer:
- Consultation on a package of tax-free benefits, salary sacrifice, health and wellbeing and a range of employee discounts and other voluntary benefits
- Installation of the systems and training for the parts you want to control yourself
- A Total Reward Statement (TRS) that shows each employee the full value of their remuneration package (basic salary, plus the value of each benefit, illustrated graphically)
- Annual re-broking of all risk benefits
- Administration of the pension scheme and risk benefits, and updating of those parts of the systems you ask us to look after
- Launch of the new system to employees
- Liaison with payroll – in-house or external bureau
- Liaison with legal advisers in areas such as the abolition of the Default Retirement Age
- Integration of benefits across a number of employers, including post acquisition
What are the costs?
Uniquely, because we specialise in this area of employee benefits consultancy, we can install these systems at greatly reduced cost. In fact, where we administer your pension and benefit package, we may be able to pay up to the first three year’s fees for you. In order to confirm this, we would need to review your current arrangements, which we currently do free of charge.
What next?
To have an initial discussion or to see a demonstration of how the system
can help your business, please get in touch.
1Research from PwC in 2010 http://bit.ly/9twEIQ
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