A new digital approach to employee benefits
The world of employee benefits has changed dramatically over the past 10-15 years, and with attitudes to employee care improving at pace, we have been honoured to work with many leading businesses across the UK to inject some innovation and expansion into their employee benefits provision. Most recently, this has included Martlets Hospice ltd.
Martlets is a local well-known charity that provides terminally ill people in Brighton and Hove, and the surrounding areas, with the very best care and support. Opening in 1997, the charity itself has now supported over 25,000 people in a range of ways such as care in their own homes, via pain relief within the hospice itself, physio, counselling and to respite care.
With such a difficult 18 months in the charity sector and some exceptionally challenging times for staff, Martlets were keen to explore ways they could develop their own employee benefits, and provide a more digital approach at the same time.
Engage has been working with Martlets for several years, managing their Health Cash Plan, and more recently, helping to improve their Group Life Assurance coverage. It was from here that Engage suggested taking the next step and exploring a new digital approach to employee benefits.
So, this summer saw the launch of Martlets own employee benefits platform, “My Benefits” which was designed and implemented by Engage via their technology brand, Engage Connect. The purpose of the platform is to house Martlets existing core employee benefits (Health Cash Plan and Group Life), but also offer a range of other value-add services for staff to access.
Engage Connect employee benefits platform offers tangible advantages
- Employees are enrolled into a Health Cash Plan via the new platform, and can elect to increase their cover and add partners to the policy. They can easily view the costs and benefits associated with the different plan levels, as well as clearly seeing a cost breakdown of their employer contributions, versus any amount they are paying themselves.
- For the Group Life, employees can quickly see the level of cover they have, access important terms and conditions of the policy, and download their Expression of Wish forms, which are then stored with the People Services team at Martlets.
- The employee benefits platform also contains information of other relevant services which Martlets make available to their teams, including local counselling services and cycle to work schemes.
Anna Kingston Royce, People Services Lead for Martlets, commented
“Introducing this platform has given us the space to showcase all our employee benefits in one place, which allows colleagues to understand the value of their total reward package. It was straightforward to set up, and makes it easier for colleagues to find information and make changes to any of their benefits. Engage were very responsive to any queries we had and ensured the process ran smoothly.”
Some of the additional services which are made available via Engage are as follows;
Discounted Cancer Screening for the 6 most prevalent cancers, most of which can be self-administered at home.
Discounted Allergy Testing for adults and children, again, is available to be self-administered at home before being sent to the lab for analysis.
Discounted Allergy Testing for adults and children, again, is available to be self-administered at home before being sent to the lab for analysis.
A new affordable way into digital benefits & positive employee experience
The online employee benefits platform itself is a great way for employers to organise their benefits and store them in one central place for employees to access. Often, employee benefits can be decompartmentalised, with different internal stakeholders managing them, and with employees unsure what’s on offer and importantly, how to access or amend them.
Traditionally, employee benefits platform technology has been reserved for large corporates, where cost wasn’t a significant consideration. The SME market has always been underserved in this space, but now, as more and more employees expect to consume benefits in a digital/online way, the market is changing.
Engage Connect employee benefits platform aims to provide employers with an affordable way into digital benefits, where previously the costs would have been too prohibitive to consider. Employees can access the platform anywhere and anytime allowing them to make smarter decisions at their convenience and increase their benefits participation.
Engage Health Group is an independent Employee Benefits Consultancy, partnering with all insurers and service providers across health insurance, cash plan, group risk and more, we can act as your one-stop-shop for broker and technology solutions. This means the broadest level of consultancy, support and experience for our customers, and the lowest possible costs!
If you would like to talk about taking your employee benefits digital, please do make contact and we can happily arrange a demo!
