Financial advisers are better positioned than ever before to provide holistic financial advice to employers and employees, both from group and individual perspectives – and insurance providers’ group propositions are advancing quickly, making it easier to advise on, implement, and embed a scheme into a workforce.
Around 41 per cent of organisations provide financial education for staff, with 35 per cent offering financial advice. One of the biggest reasons for not providing this service to employees is due to it being considered too expensive.
However, 84 per cent of employers agree that offering financial wellness tools would help to attract top talent, with 62 per cent admitting that financial wellbeing affects engagement. This, coupled with collaboration with key industry players that provide individual and group protection, means private healthcare and benefits are at an all-time high.
This is particularly the case as insurance policies across the industry continue to accrue additional wellbeing and benefits, many of which now extend providing benefits to the insured’s family members.
More than 90 per cent of HR, finance, and pension professionals admit that employers have a duty to provide more financial education for employees around pension savings.
Fintech advancement
The development of fintech has played a huge role in the advancement of employee benefits over the course of the past one-to-two years, as accessibility to platforms offering immediately accessible perks have become increasingly popular.
Marrying technology with an employee value proposition enables an employer to use management information to determine the level of uptake of benefits while measuring the effectiveness of them and enables employees to set goals and objectives, understand wellbeing and finance, and avoid pitfalls such as debt, all of which is now more valuable than ever.
What sort of benefits are most sought after by employees?
Many believe their benefit packages are outdated, with demands that employers tailor benefit packages to their employees and provide better access to lifestyle and wellbeing benefits. According to new data, more than 70 per cent of employees prefer perks over pensions, although pensions are sitting comfortably in the top four of preferred benefits alongside flexi-hours, bonus or profit-related reward schemes and wellbeing support.
