Employee benefits suppliers and consultants need to look beyond providing just product to rather becoming a partner and integrating into the employer’s business.
By Jeremy Hawson, GCI Employee Benefits, Divisional Manager
Employee benefits consultants have carved out a role for themselves by providing organisations with assistance in developing and administering compensation over and above salary to their employees. These benefits have become important factors in expanding employee engagement and thus productivity, as well as in attracting and retaining staff.
Traditionally, typical employee benefits consultants provide retirement funding solutions and risk cover with little personal interaction except at annual renewal. After installation it generally becomes the responsibility of the HR department to point members in the right direction.
This is obviously valuable but, in today’s pressurised and competitive business environment, companies are starting to look for more from their employee benefit consultants. In response, leading employee benefits consultats are repositioning themselves, moving away from being essentially product providers to integrated partners and systems providing services that are integrated into, and even replace, some internal HR processes.
Going forward, however, these benefits to employees need to be delivered in ways that provide real benefits to companies as well as to the employees. In this way, employee benefits consultants will be able to save companies money, provide a buffer between the employer, the member and the insurer and investment industry, and ultimately become part of the company by taking over or managing certain processes related to employee benefits.
Many of these company benefits are consequences of traditional employee benefits practices. Thus, the annual cost comparison of insurers and administrators has the potential to save companies and members money; in addition, by producing a comprehensive but simple monthly salary schedule and other reports, the employee benefits consultant would also take a task off the shoulders of in-house payroll and HR staff.
Thinking strategically
Employee benefits providers can and should go further by providing specialist guidance on which specific products and systems should be chosen to meet corporate and staff goals while reducing unnecessary and onerous costs and administration. The consultant can also handle claims on behalf of employees, a time-consuming task that has typically fallen to HR staff. These functions would see the consultant acting as an intermediary between the company and the insurer and investment industry and very often significantly improving the outcome.
These functions can free up significant amounts of the time of HR and payroll staff. The next step is to take over or manage certain processes related to employee benefits. These would include generating a monthly management report that tracks asset value, asset allocations, fund performance history and member movements; provides an audit of contribution allocation; and reports on the financial health of members.
Another functional value-add would be to take over the supervising of the quarterly Board of Management Committee meetings. Outputs here would obviously include the monthly management report but in addition would cover setting up and reporting on presentations by insurers and investment houses, running discussions with various funds with which the company deals, and developing a strategy to improve the financial health of employees.
All of this will ensure that the company gets the most cost-effective solution and reduces its administrative burden, further enhancing the ability to attract and retain key staff, enhance decision-making and protect the company’s reputation. In the process, the provider will have a positive effect, direct and indirect, on the corporate bottom line.
The key to all these benefits, and more, is for employee benefits consultant to see themselves, and to be seen, as partners and systems within the employer’s company, rather than product vendors. If this transition is successful, a whole new – and fruitful – way of delivering employee benefits is opened up.
ENDS.
About GCI Employee Benefits
GCI Employee Benefits is a boutique retirement fund consulting firm, whose mission is to create happy members, protect members from the Industry, be a system within the company – not a product and help grow the company’s bottom line.
Contact details
GCI Wealth
Alex Cook
Chief Executive
Tel: 011 768 1022
Email: alex@gci.co.za