Flex Benefits
What is Flex?
Flex has been driven by the need for choice – think about your own needs now as opposed to when you first started work, what changes have you experienced? Think about your employees: the needs of a single 20 year old are totally different to those of a married 50 year old.
At its simplest Flex is simply a term used to describe modern employee benefit arrangements that give the employee flexibility in the choice of their salary and benefit package. Often a key part of a flex scheme is the ability of the employee to exchange salary for further benefits realising tax and NI savings in the process. You, as an employer will make NI savings too which can often mitigate the cost of implementing a flex scheme.
Why should you consider flex?
Easy to implement – with new technology and lower administration costs flex has never been so accessible to all sizes of organisations.
Diverse needs require choice - each employee is different and at a different stage in their life. With flex you won't waste money giving benefits that employees don't need or want.
Controlling costs – you set the amount you want to give employees as fixed cover, any additional cover the employee requires the employee pays for themselves based on their own needs and wants.
National insurance savings – these are available on some benefits and can be used to mitigate the cost of implementing flex or salary sacrifice schemes. Alternatively the savings can be passed back to employees.
Attracting, retaining and engaging employees – Flex allows you to: retain valuable and talented staff; attract new employees where the benefit package on offer is important in their final decision and engage existing employees by helping them to understand the true value of the benefits being offered to them.
Going through change – flex can be an efficient way to integrate benefits packages during times of company change such as mergers and acquisitions.
In the most recent survey carried out by Employee Benefits Magazine, 81% of respondents believed flex recognised the diverse needs and values of the workforce and over half believed it helped in the recruitment and retention of staff.
Careful Planning
Whilst easy to implement, you cannot rush into flex without careful planning. The most successful implementations are those which start small with perhaps a few salary sacrifice benefits and evolve. JMF Employer Services will take you through the various stages to build a viable solution which delivers the return on investment you require:
- Fact find – to understand your existing benefits and how they have been designed and are administered
- Feasibility – to help you build a business case for introducing flex or salary sacrifice benefits
- Scoping and Design – what will the flex scheme look like in terms of benefit provision
- Benefit sourcing – using our combined buying power to get the best deal for you
- Communication – using the latest technology to ensure employees understand the true value of the scheme
- Implementation – ensuring your scheme, however large or small, gets implemented on time and within budget
- Support and Administration – once a scheme is in place and regular reviews to ensure its continued success.
To find out how JMF Employer Services can help you in managing the needs of your workforce and maximising your return on investment with flexible and salary sacrifice benefits please contact us now.
