Gower Financial Services manager, Susie Brown, explains how small businesses can implement and benefit from bespoke schemes. 

Implementing an Employee Benefits Scheme can represent a significant amount of work. Employee benefits can take the form of pension plans, medical insurance and a whole lot more, and are effectively all benefits offered in addition to salary. Employee benefit specialists will be able to provide advice on the most cost effective employee benefits that small business owners can implement to suit their budgets.

Administering the Scheme 
Once you have selected your employee benefit products who will take care of the administration of the scheme? Will you choose to out-source the administration to employee benefit specialists or will you have spare capacity to manage the administration processes yourself?

If yours is a very small business then you are unlikely to be able to secure the group discounts that would make outsourcing financially viable. However, a small business tends to have significant demands placed upon the management’s time therefore you may feel paying a slight premium for outsourcing is worth it, if it frees you up to do other jobs within your business. As the size of your workforce grows then the attraction of outsourcing becomes more attractive.

Pricing
There are a number of variables when it comes to the price of an employee benefits package; the main factor being the range of benefits required. Another factor will be how big the organisation is and how many employees are involved. One area to consider is how much it would cost to replace an employee you have invested your time, energy and knowledge into only for them to join a competitor who offers a benefits package in excess of yours!

There are a number of important questions to be answered when looking at establishing and administering employee benefit schemes, such as the treatment of tax and social security contributions. In reality cost concerns and workforce size will make many of these decisions for you.

Contact Us - Are you currently a small business with a benefits package already in place? is it still delivering what you as a business owner or your employees need? Give our team a call and speak to Fran or Susie for a free consultation review. Or email our dedicated benefits team: eb@gowerfinancial.com

Next time on the blog... Communicating your Benefits to Staff