Employee Benefits

The demand for qualified workers is outstripping the supply, and attracting and retaining great talent is becoming ever more difficult. 

A well-thought-out benefits offering can show your employees that you value them, and help keep them in the family.

Employee benefits is one of the most tailorable offerings in insurance. Howden consultants help you design a programme with no waste or undue complications, that makes sense to employees and business leaders alike – for the long term. 

Everything we do for you and your employees is powered by:
 

1. High-impact analytics and ongoing consultancy 

Some insurances you may never claim against. With employee benefits, most clients claim a lot. Which means significant negotiation with insurers, ongoing policy optimisation and risk management education, both inside your business and in the insurance markets. We handle all that for you.

2. Proactive risk management and education 

Naturally, you’ll be wanting to do everything in your power to prevent premium price rises. We help by educating your staff on a range of subjects that can keep those premiums down; from healthy lifestyles to financial wellbeing courses and much more.

3. Prompt payment of claims

We have the greatest respect for your employees. We know that claims are for the personal, real-life situations that are among the most stressful your employees will encounter. So we only work with insurers who feel the same way, getting the support directly where it’s needed, fast.

For employees, what does good look like?

Popular benefits that show your business is committed to employee wellbeing. 

Private medical: the best care, no questions asked 

We cover your staff’s medical expenses if they ever need to visit or stay in the hospital, have surgery or outpatient treatment, dental work, or maternity expenses.

Because you don’t want to exclude any of your people, we have schemes that happily cover pre-existing conditions. That way, you don’t have to ask awkward questions and your talent is covered from day one.  

Life insurance

This cover provides a lump sum pay-out to an employee’s family if the employee passes away while they are working for you.

Income protection  

Income protection insurance usually pays out to the employer, who in turn pays their employee when they are off work with a long term illness or disability. 

It works this way so that the employer can handle the tax obligations and pension contributions, as they normally would. Income protection pays their salary for a pre-defined period, another customisable element of the programme – recommended lengths vary from industry to industry.

Temporary or permanent disablement insurance 

If your employee suffers a temporary or permanent disability, their focus needs be on recuperating, and that alone. Disablement insurance provides a cash lump sum to alleviate worries about financial commitments while recuperating. 

Personal accident insurance

Personal accident insurance offers support in the face of the unexpected. If your employee is injured through an accident, they will be protected against loss of income and medical expenses.

Lifestyle benefits 

Other benefits can help employees live a healthy relaxed lifestyle. Some popular options include:

• Discounted health screenings 
• Virtual GP 
• Optical benefits 
• Retail therapy discounts  
• Discounted gym memberships
• Financial counselling helplines

This element of cover is infinitely tailorable. 

International employee benefits for ex-pats 

Compliance requirements are different all around the world – as are the insurance markets. Getting the arrangements right takes global know-how. 

Howden is a truly global business with offices and trusted partners in over 90 countries, we’ll equip your programme to deliver results wherever in the world your people work.

How Howden helps to design employee benefits insurance programmes

Review your employee benefits insurance programme

What would a thorough analysis of your employee benefits insurance programme reveal? Do people use them? Does the business see a positive effect? Is it worth revisiting the offering to see if you could get better value another way? 

More peace, less premium

Want your people to have greater peace of mind? Don’t want to pay more for it? We can work out comprehensive bespoke employee benefits insurance programmes at a sustainable competitive price.

The emphasis is always on quality rather than price – never cutting corners, always buying smart. The last thing we’d want to do a deal that’s cheap but has nasty surprises for your people when they try to claim.

Using claims analytics to solve business problems

We can help you introduce initiatives to improve the health of your workforce and reduce the root causes of claims. For example, deep claims analytics could reveal a lot of your claims relate back to stress. We can help you review the situation and find solutions, helping cut unnecessary stress to improve productivity and wellbeing at the same time.    

Speak to us about how other companies are using these insights. 

Communications support – if employees don’t know, then there’s no benefit

Is your team communicating the benefits offering well? In terms of attracting and retaining staff, communication is crucial – and frequently overlooked.

You cannot simply buy the employee benefits insurance and assume your work is done. 

We are happy to run workshops and provide bespoke handbooks, even training your recruiters and hiring managers to ‘sell’ your company to prospective employees.