Private medical insurance is the employee benefit most valued by employees, when you ignore automatic enrolment and workplace pensions.
Despite this, many UK firms do not provide adequately for their employee’s health when it comes to their employee benefits programme. 56% of employees put health as a top priority in their life, yet only 35% of those same employees say that the company they work for cares about supporting a healthy work environment. 79% of small businesses do not offer private medical insurance to their staff. And the statistics get more striking from there;
- One in seven small business employees has been absent from the business for four weeks or more in the last 12 months.
- Private medical insurance can cost as little £15 per month, per employee.
- On average, each employee’s absence costs business £522 per year.
- Healthy businesses are 6 days a year more productive than unhealthy ones.
The business case for having health employees is a fairly obvious one and private medical insurance helps you to help your team. What’s more, with it being the second most valued employee benefit, private medical insurance is also likely to help you when it comes to hiring and retention of key staff. We know that employees look carefully at the ancillary benefits of their remuneration package and a strong private medical offering is a good way to make your firm stand out.
In the next 3 years, 54% of employers are planning to offer employees access to an online ‘health portal’ to track their interaction with health benefits and provide incentives. 50% plan to offer access to apps and new technologies to monitor health and incentivise well-being.
These types of initiatives represent the new wave of private medical insurance and health-based employee benefits, which look likely to leave the 79% of businesses with no offering at all far behind.
Many businesses report being put off by the cost or complexity of private medical insurance, but the truth is that arranging such a benefit for your employees does not need to be that difficult.
The right group plan can cover all executives, key staff members other employees and families, based on information provided by you, the employer. There is no need to seek complicated medical assessments or ask employees to fill these in for you.
In return for this simple application procedure businesses can benefit not just from increased employee loyalty and a boost for the recruitment department but from a healthier team too. Employees who require medical attention can benefit from a private hospital, be referred to consultants quicker, get access to a GP helpline and even have access to new and expensive modern treatments, not available on the NHS.
Don’t get left behind when it comes to the health of your workforce! Stand out from the 79% of firms who don’t currently offer private medical insurance today and start to reap the benefits.