HEALTH & WELLBEING
A guide to creating a successful health and wellbeing programme
Whether you are a new start-up looking for what benefits to incorporate into your health and wellbeing program or an established blue chip looking to maximise the value from your current offering, our guide will give you useful tips to think about when planning your health and wellbeing strategy.
We hope it helps and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
Read through our guide…
What is health and wellbeing?
Organisations all over the world recognise the value in keeping their employees healthy and happy due to the benefits they receive in return, such as increased productivity, less time off due to illness and lower volumes of staff turnover to name a few.
This led companies to develop a health and wellbeing programme as part of their employee benefit package, which is now commonplace for reward schemes.
A successful health and wellbeing strategy should look to address 3 aspects of employee's health (whether that be physical or mental health).
Where most organisations fail is placing too much emphasis on treatment, often introducing many benefits with group healthcare providers. However, forward-thinking companies recognise the need for the other areas.
We will now look at these areas in more depth…
Prevention
Eradicating a problem before it even starts to appear. The first step to keeping your employees fit and healthy is preventing them from becoming unfit and unhealthy in the first place. Prevention is creeping higher up on the health and wellbeing agenda for larger organisations – even the Government published a report in 2018 for the health of the nation, it is no surprise it was called “Prevention is better than cure; our vision to help you live well for longer.”
“Prevention is better than cure; our vision to help you live well for longer.”
Here’s some issues with prevention and how to tackle them…
Where do you start?
If you have an established healthcare package you should take a look back over your claims history and see if you can spot trends as to why people are going off sick – you have then found your starting point.
If you're starting from scratch you need to assess what shape your organisation is in. Evaluate things like the work environment, work/life balance, work itself (i.e. is it highly stressful) etc…You’ll then start to paint a picture of what potential claims might be on the horizon.
What budget to set aside?
What does it cost you to have members of staff off sick? Your budget can be as big or as small as you like but with costly insurance policies, we would suggest prevention deserves its own budget allocated within your strategy.
How do you evaluate the effectiveness of any strategies you introduce?
If you have an established healthcare package it's a simple comparison between past and future claims history.
It is a little trickier to evaluate if you're starting from nothing, but a bench-marking exercise to those organisations in your field or with similar functions will give you a good indication if you are above or below the norm.
Here are some successful prevention trends…
✓ Mental wellbeing apps to help with stress and other forms of mental illness
✓ Stand up desks are a new wave we see in the workplace to get employees out of the usual 7 hours of sitting down at their desk
✓ Gym memberships to encourage employees to live a healthier lifestyle
✓ Flexible working hours help for work/life balance
✓ Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)
✓ Free fruit in the office
Treatment
Treatment is most likely what springs to mind when we think about an employee health and wellbeing program. They are the insurance products that HR teams put in place to facilitate a swift return to work if you were unable to due to illness/injury or, to give peace of mind to loved ones if you were to pass away. (See more in our Typical benefits packages section.)
Here are some of the challenges faced by employers…
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These policies often go unused by majority of the workforce, they are perhaps undervalued as you don’t see the benefit of them until they are truly needed.
Our Solutions...
✓ Create case studies on employees using them
✓ Timely reminders of the values such as key life events
✓ “Benefits awareness days” (these are where you invite providers in to host a stand in your office and encourage staff to go and ask questions as they pass)
✓ Total reward statements show the monetary value of the benefit
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Reviewing your policies to ensure you are with the right provider with the right perks and paying the right price can be a long process.
Our Solutions...
✓ Give yourself 3 months to perform a market review
✓ Have a set plan and approach providers early
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Our Solutions...
✓ Find what additional support you can get from your provider
✓ Third-party brokers can handle the administration of your schemes if the day to day running can become too much of a time gripe.
✓ Hire additional healthcare support to deal with the administration. Find out how we can help.
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Claims management can be a specialist area where if you don’t have the knowledge, you might find yourself out of your depth.
Our Solutions...
✓ Most providers encourage early intervention to ensure the best claims route is followed
✓ This is a specialist area and we would encourage you to lean on the support of your provider/third party broker
✓ Enrol onto CIPD specific courses to boost your knowledge in this area
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If you are a starting from nothing, you need to figure out what insurances you should be including, at what level and with what provider?
✓ All of which can be found in our Typical benefits packages section.
Are you too stretched to manage your group healthcare policies? We are here to help!
Lemonade Reward is a one-stop solution for all of your group risk and healthcare needs including; life assurance, income protection, critical illness, travel, cash plans and private medical insurance.
We can align your healthcare strategy with your overall rewards objectives
We ensure you get the best prices when conducting a market review
We provide claims management of members, taking these time consuming tasks away from your HR team
We give you more time to focus on other projects
Education
We come onto our final key aspect of a successful health and wellbeing programme which is Education. Teaching your employees how to make better life choices and looking after their health is vital, this is from both a physical and mental perspective. We’ve all heard it before but if they can eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly and minimise stress levels, they are bound to be more productive at work and ultimately lead a happier life.
Education needs to become a constant within your work environment if you want to see a real impact.
You may have your own ideas on how to promote a healthier work environment but ideas that we have seen in companies which have worked well are:
Mental health ideas
Educating line managers about the importance of managing stress for their team
Introducing flexible working hours
Promoting your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
Meditation spaces within offices
Physical health ideas
Team fitness challenges (such as counting steps your team can take over a one month period)
Cycle to work schemes to encourage people to get their exercise in
Wellbeing champions around the office to promote various incentives & events
Most providers offer Online Health Calendars at no additional charge, which cover specific topics such as Mental Health, Cancer in the workplace and physical challenges for management and staff.
Typical benefits packages
A fundamental healthcare package would simply look to cover off the treatment aspect of healthcare and would include the below insurance policies. The cover level will vary depending upon which industry you operate in but as a baseline.
Here’s how a “core package” would look…
Group Life Cover
This policy provides a lump sum payment to an employee’s loved ones if they were to pass away whilst being employed by yourselves.
Typical cover level – 4 x salary (base level) but senior managers can get anything up to 10 x salary
Group Income Protection
Also known as permanent health insurance, covers the employee for a % of their salary if they were unable to work due to illness or injury.
Typical cover level – 75% of their salary.
You can state when this cover kicks in i.e. after 13 weeks of being off sick (known as the deferred period).
This can also escalate in line with inflation each year.
Private Medical Insurance
This policy covers an employee’s treatment if they were to be off work due to illness or injury.
Typical cover level – Medical history disregarded, this means that your provider will cover existing medical conditions.
Often there are excess levels such as £100, but these can be tailored if you have different levels i.e. £0 for senior managers.
Dental Insurance
As you would expect, this covers the cost of dental care.
Typical cover level – these can vary, but basic cover will always cover 100% NHS reimbursement and Mouth Cancer.
Other types of cover
There are other types of cover which often fall into healthcare and wellbeing programmes such as Travel insurance, Critical Illness and Personal Accident, but these aren’t seen as “core” benefits.
What is best for your organisation?
A good idea could be to take an “audit” of your staff’s health, this can be done by completing a workplace health assessment. This is where a health practitioner comes to your place of work and can study your employees' health by calculating their BMI, taking their blood pressure etc… as well as online surveys to assess their lifestyle such as levels of stress and sleep patterns. This could give you a starting point from which to measure.
A typical corporate health and wellbeing package might not necessarily be the best fit for your organisation as these are “blanket” packages which we see across almost every organisation, what differentiates you from the rest of the pack is how you shape your package to dovetail into your line of work.
Examples
Click on the heading for more information.
High Pressure/Stressful workplace
In this scenario, it would make sense to place your emphasis on the mental health of your employees. For example, a job role which asks its employees to work long hours over weeks/months to hit deadlines will benefit from assessing its work-life balance policies.
Prevention – work-life balance policies, mental health app subscriptions.
Treatment – private health insurance for anyone who has to be signed off for mental reasons such as stress.
A lot of Employee Assistance Programme providers offer telephone counselling but can refer to Face to Face treatment at no charge. Most income providers and some life providers offer this service free of charge as part of the policy benefits.
Education – educating line managers on how to spot employees who are feeling stressed and refer them to the best service that can support them.
Physically demanding work
Manually intensive workplaces such as the retail sector may be more likely to suffer severe injury, such as fractures and ligament damage.
Prevention – correct footwear for all employees, posture & flexibility programmes.
Treatment – private medical insurance so that anyone can access a physio should they be signed off work due to an injury. Income protection will be beneficial for longer term injuries.
Education – education on the importance of posture and/or lifting correctly.
Sedentary workforces
In contrast to a large percentage of the retail sector - these largely based office jobs will benefit from fitness challenges, gym memberships etc. due to the fact that almost 80% of the day involves sitting in a chair. Employees will benefit from having a muscular-skeletal support programme (physiotherapists).
Prevention – gym memberships, fresh fruit, ergonomic desk evaluation, eye tests.
Treatment – being stuck in a chair all day can lead to mental and physical health problems – a mixture of policies will be prudent here.
Education – wellbeing champions to promote lunchtime walks and after-hours activities.
As you can see, tailoring your health and wellbeing package is essential to get the most out of your employees. The above are just examples of how you can start to structure your package by looking at the 3 key aspects of healthcare – Prevention, Treatment & Education.
Inclusion
Ensure your employee benefits, including group risk products are inclusive to your whole workforce.
When it comes to your Group Risk products, you should look to review your schemes regularly, so you continue to receive the best service for your employees and the best value for your money for the company.
It is important to consider key inclusivity factors when completing this exercise. Inclusivity is a very important part of today’s society and many forward-thinking companies will look to ensure they make employee benefits, including group risk products, inclusive to all.
Our 10 key inclusivity factors…
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Boost inclusivity for your employees by looking for policies that do cover certain pre-existing medical conditions that other policies typically don’t.
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Many people admit to feeling embarrassed to ask HR for a referral for their medical condition or mental health support. If you can find a policy that allows your employees to self-refer, this would help them feel much more relaxed about getting the help they need.
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Most Private Medical Insurance (PMI) plans now offer a Digital GP. This service enables employees to speak to a GP from the office or home, meaning less time out of the office and better access and inclusivity for your employees. These GP’s can then refer employees to hospitals/write prescriptions whilst on the call.
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It is always worth reviewing the excess on your Group Risk policy as a high excess could discourage employees from utilising the service. You may have a mixture of high and low earners within your company and if the excesses are too high, this will exclude the lower-paid workers. Ensuring excesses are low makes the service more inclusive to all.
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As humans, we are all different and have different levels of what is acceptable to share with others or not. Most of us wouldn’t want our medical records to be viewed by our employer, so inclusivity needs to ensure full anonymity for your employees, meaning no sensitive information at all is passed on to the employers.
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Some providers allow you to add certain services such as; increased mental health cover, dental and optical cover and travel insurance. With Group Income Protection schemes to help lower costs for you, the employer, you could consider reducing the escalation rate or increasing the deferred period to free up some money. This money could be used to implement these additional value-added services for your employees.
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Some PMI providers offer different levels of hospital coverage which could be of particular benefit for companies that are not London based. By opting for coverage that doesn’t include some of the main most expensive London hospitals (if you are unlikely to utilise these), can help to reduce the annual premium.
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With more employees working longer past typical retirement age, you should consider increasing your scheme’s ceasing age from age 65 to State Pension Age. Whilst this might increase the cost for Group Income protection schemes by approx. 3%, implementing this change to an existing Group Life scheme shouldn’t, with the vast majority of Life providers, affect the cost.
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Before reviewing your policies you could consider asking your employees what benefits they would use or value the most/least. You might be surprised at what they choose over the services you already offer, which you can then take into account within the review process. With this data, you can ensure that your offering covers the wants and needs of your workforce. It may also be helpful to list the variety of issues that can be discussed through your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
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Historically, corporate private healthcare has excluded treatment for gender dysphoria. However, some progressive organisations have restructured their benefits to provide cover for such treatment. Moves like this support the emerging culture of inclusion and diversity.
To create a truly progressive and inclusive workplace it is important to ensure benefits go hand in hand with cultural change. Supportive working environments can motivate your employees to bring their whole selves to work which will benefit themselves, their colleagues and your business.
Cost saving ideas
Inclusivity is an increasing focus for HR professionals when it comes to creating a well-rounded health and wellbeing strategy, but with inclusivity comes cost. So to give a balanced argument, we must also look at ways in which you can limit the expense of your policies.
Pay your premiums annually rather than monthly
Just like most other types of insurance, you can generate a saving if you switch to annual payments.
Review your Private Medical & Dental insurances annually
These are 12-month contracts which if left would be fine, but insurance providers are constantly changing their offerings to generate new business.
Negotiate Extended Rates
Policies such as Income Protection and Group Life cover usually come with a 2-year rate guarantee, but you can negotiate extended rates when it comes to renewal time.
Introduce aspects of cover to make employees think twice
You can introduce aspects of cover which will make employees think twice before claiming, such as excess levels on PMI and longer waiting periods on Income Protection. The method behind this is that it will discourage those who could probably manage without and will reduce your number of claims, thus making your renewals cheaper.
These cost-saving initiatives will no doubt have a knock-on effect on your inclusivity policies, but this is the balance HR and benefits professionals have to strike when designing their healthcare package.
Healthcare renewal process
PMI contracts last 12 months, it is always worthwhile reviewing your PMI schemes at each renewal to ensure you continue to receive the best terms and rates.
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SME Age rated PMI schemes (SME schemes are typically schemes insuring < 100 employees)
To start the review process contact the existing PMI provider 2 MONTHS before the renewal date.
Corporate experience (claims) rated PMI schemes
To start the review process, contact the existing provider 3 MONTHS before the renewal date.
Whether it’s an SME or Corporate scheme you need to request the following from the existing provider. Their renewal quote (based on 'existing policy terms'), a full current membership listing in excel format (which must match the membership quoted for by the provider) plus a minimum of 3 years’ scheme history info such as total number of lives and annual premiums paid etc.
Allow the providers up to 3 working days to issue their renewal terms/scheme info to you. Check they have provided you with all you asked for.
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Request quotes from a minimum of three competitor PMI providers.
Before requesting quotes first take a look at the existing terms, if the scheme doesn’t have a policy excess or has full Out-Patient (OP) cover, you could request additional quoted options on existing terms but applying a £100 excess or limiting Out-Patient cover to £1,000 (or both) as these are standard cost-saving options on PMI schemes. Take time to read the existing provider’s brochures as often they will outline what kind of policy changes might offer cost savings or improvements to current benefits.
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Check all of the quotes you receive to ensure they are correct and that they exactly match the membership quoted for by the holding insurer for direct comparison purposes.
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Once all quotes are received, if a competitor has offered more competitive terms, refer back to the holding PMI provider to give feedback and request a discount to their original quoted renewal terms in light of competition.
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On receiving the holding provider’s discounted terms (if offered), if no explanation has been given, ask the provider why their costs may have increased. Some of the main reasons could be due to high claims performance, members being one year older, medical inflation, increase to obligatory Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) to name a few.
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Confirm your renewal instructions in writing to the existing provider to renew and on what terms agreed. If the decision is to switch to a competitor, you will need to confirm to the new provider the terms you wish to proceed with, and the cover start date. Don’t forget to cancel the existing scheme once you have the new provider’s acceptance of cover in writing.
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Complete any paperwork required and confirm membership to the provider. When the invoice is generated arrange payment within the deadline given by the provider to ensure cover is maintained and member’s claims are not disrupted.
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The provider will generate certificates of insurance which will be posted to member’s home address along with a current Member Handbook detailing how to register for access to the providers' online member portal. The portal is where they can locate various scheme documentation including a guide to claiming, utilising their digital GP service (if included to the cover), as well as any retail/gym offers and much more.
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