Employee Benefits Fees FAQs

The answer to this is initially nothing!
Our Discovery call, the review of your current employee benefits, and our tailored design and recommendations with indicative costs are all complementary as part of our consultative approach and service. A link to our Discovery stage can be found on our fees page.

Once we have presented to you the indicative quotes and demonstrated the value they will provide to your company and employees; if you are interested in proceeding, we can then proceed to our comprehensive Paid Proposal.

In our experience after submitting and reviewing our initial indicative prices over 90% of companies are keen to proceed and opt to move to the paid proposal stage.

In our experience after submitting and reviewing our initial indicative prices over 90% of companies are keen to proceed and opt to move to the paid proposal stage.

A paid proposal means Bigmore Benefits will “Go to Market” on your behalf and get more accurate costs for the agreed benefits discussed. The proposal will also include a comprehensive analysis of the benefit market, and we will design the most suitable package for you based on your requirements and budget.
To enable us to review the market, we will request detailed information relating to your employee data. Once we receive this from you it normally takes approximately 15-20 working days to provide you with the full proposal.

We are delighted that you want to proceed. You’ve made a good decision 😊. We will now get to work in setting up your Employee Benefits Package and we will communicate these to your employees.
To arrange and implement your employee benefits package it will take on average 4-6 weeks. At this time there will be a one-off implementation fee. The price will depend on which proposition you have selected.

Launchpad - £245
Engage & Connect - £395
Partnership - £425

Whether we’re implementing a Benefits package from new, or taking over a current employee benefit package, we have a simple seven stage process. We will manage the process from start to finish and you will be assigned an Onboarding Manager who will liaise and work closely with you to ensure we deliver your Employee Benefit Package. On average this takes 4-6 weeks:

1. Confirmation - Company confirms wish to proceed (week 1)
2. Introduction communication - Introduction from Bigmore to our onboarding team (week 1)
3. Onboarding communication - Onboarding team will request and provide the following to and from client:
o Letters of appointment to send to all holding providers (if applicable) (week1)
o Client Agreement
o Service Level agreements
o Data Protection agreements
4. Client Set up – With providers and internally (week 2-4)
5. Processes meeting with client designated contact (week 2-4)
6. Communication to employees (week 3 – 5)
7. Start date

This is where are service really stands apart from the competition. Bigmore Benefits act as a partner to our clients for all their Employee Benefits and Engagement needs. We provide you with continued ongoing service and support including a range of Engagement services.
This is to ensure the benefits in place are fully communicated and valued by your employees throughout the year.

The ongoing service and support fee depends on the Proposition you have selected, and the number of employees at the time of inception or renewal. So, if you start the year with 20 employees, we will only charge for 20 employees over the course of the year.
• Launchpad - £50 per month flat fee
• Engage & Connect – Minimum of £90 per month
o Minimum fee of £90 per month (equal to 20 employees @£4.50 per month)
o If your company has over 20 employees, the fee will be based on £4.50 per person per month based on the number of employees at inception or renewal. For example, if you have 35 employees on inception, we will charge £157.50 per month for twelve months. We will not charge for joiners or leavers during the year.
• Partnership – Minimum of £125 per month
o Minimum fee of £125 per month (equal to 20 employees @£6.25 per month)
o If your company has over 20 employees, the fee will be based on £6.25 per person per month based on the number of employees at inception or renewal. For example, if you have 35 employees on inception, we will charge £218.75 per month for twelve months. We will not charge for joiners or leavers during the year.

As outlined above, we are unique because we act as a partner for all your Employee Benefit and Engagement needs. We work closely with you at every stage and ensure that employees are communicated with regularly and are fully aware and appreciative of the range of benefits provided and the value to them. We offer ongoing support and advice throughout the year. We advise you of all key dates for renewals and ensure the process is as easy and painless for you as possible.

The six core areas we support you with, depending upon which scheme you are signed up to (Launchpad, Engage & Connect or Partnership) are as follows
• Annual Benefit Review
• Compliance
• Ongoing Benefit Support and Administration
• Workplace Pension Administration
• Employee Communication and Engagement Centre
• Employee Support Hub

As a partner we strive to ensure the support we provide you with covers all your employee benefit requirements. Very rarely we are asked to provide a service that is outside of the scope of services outlined in your selected proposition. In this event, we will advise you of this prior to proceeding with the request, and we will provide a quote to you for conducting the works.

No. We have annual rolling contracts with all our clients. It is important to us that our clients work with us by choice and not because they are tied into our service. However, we may provide incentives to clients that request to cement a longer-term relationship.

As you suggest, there may be benefits for both parties in cementing a longer-term relationship.
Therefore, if clients are happy to commit to our service for a longer period (typically 3-5 years), then we will work with them to agree a mutually beneficial discount to our standard fees.

We are quite unique compared to other companies providing employee benefits. We do not tie you into long term contracts. We believe our service and working in partnership with you is the key factor in our clients retaining our services year on year. In fact, in our 20 years of business we have never lost a client due to service!

Our clients have the right to terminate their relationship with Bigmore Benefits at any time and vice versa. Notice of this termination must be given in writing and will take effect from the date of receipt. Termination is without prejudice to any transactions already initiated, which will be completed according to these terms of business unless otherwise agreed in writing. You will be liable to pay for any transactions made prior to termination and any fees that may be outstanding. We start reviewing the market for our clients’ employee benefits 3 months prior to an annual renewal date of Group Insurances. If you decide to terminate your relationship with Bigmore Benefits within 60 days of one of your group insurance renewal dates, we reserve the right to charge you a termination fee. This will be half of your annual fee capped on £1,500. This is to cover administration costs of renewal. Termination between the 1st and 10th month of cover will incur no charges.

In the SME space, we understand companies sometimes feel that it's more cost effective to run employee benefits in house. However, we strongly believe this to be a false economy. At Bigmore Benefits we believe ourselves to be the best cost-value Employee Benefits proposition in the UK. When using a partner like Bigmore Benefit, you can be assured that we will always ensure the benefits in place are the most cost effective for you, and we regularly save our clients thousands of pounds by conducting our renewal process.
In addition, we provide comprehensive support to you and your employees saving you both time, and ensuring they truly value the Employee Benefits you are providing. We provide an end-to-end service from initial enquiry to implementation and then ongoing support as well as reinforcing to all employees the benefits you have provided and ensuring they are fully aware and engaged. This alleviates additional workload for your HR department. Once engaged these are the areas BIgmore Benefits supports you with:
• Introduction Employee Benefit Presentation
• Quarterly Employee Benefit presentations to new joiners
• Documentation – Benefit Booklets provided
• Benefits portal – Individual logins to all employees (Partnerships model)
• Range of Financial Education and Health and Wellbeing presentation
• Regular communications throughout the year
• Support line for all employees
Be careful! It’s also important to consider the areas we can support your employees. As we’re authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, we’re qualified and authorised to support your employees in a range of areas you will not be. As a company, if you provide the wrong advice to your employees, you are potentially liable for this.

Our unique partnership model ensures we provide support and solutions in all the above areas. There are many brilliant Employee Benefit suppliers in the industry, but it’s helpful for you to understand the limitations each of the above, in isolation. Whether you choose to appoint Bigmore Benefits or choose to go with another provider, we hope the below provides you with some key probing questions you may want to ask to ensure you’re making the right decision:

Consultant

Typically, consultants work on a project basis with costed fees. Their service models do not typically provide ongoing support unless agreed prior. They will typically charge for any additional services requested. Because of their fee structure, it’s not uncommon to see costs escalate. In some extremes with some of the larger consultancies, we’ve even heard of them applying a charge of £50 per email they send to the client. If proceeding with a consultant, carefully scope out the support you require, and make sure you’re aware of everything that is included.

Broker

Most brokers will earn the bulk of their revenue from commissions paid from the Employee Benefits they instruct. This means their commissions may be anything between 10% to 20% commission.
Because of their model, it’s more common for Brokers to work reactively, requesting updated membership information every two years so they can review the market. In most cases, you will be responsible for communicating and administering the benefits to your employees.

Administrator

Pension and/or Benefit Administrators work a little bit like a Payroll Bureau (much like us). They typically work on a fee per person basis and primarily administer and manage company pensions. They may provide support to your employees as part of the service, but their scope will not typically extend to providing guidance to employees.

Technology Platform

There are so many Technology Platforms across a wide range of Employee Benefit areas. This may include Reward and Recognition schemes, Health and wellbeing platforms, Financial Wellbeing platforms, and Flexible Gym schemes.
We love technology and full endorse the use of technology within a benefits package. However, be aware that many platforms will sell the benefits of their flexible offerings for employees. This shouldn’t be confused with flexible benefits. Truly flexible benefit platforms tend to be available to of 200+ employees.

Most technology platforms work on a subscription model which varies drastically. One of the biggest challenges with technology platforms is ongoing engagement. It is a highly saturated market and employees are overwhelmed with digital distractions. In our experience, to maximize the engagement of any Benefits technology, it must be combined with the personal touch of human delivery.

Unlike many Employee Benefit Brokers, commissions are a secondary revenue to us. First and foremost, we are a service proposition, and it is our priority to deliver a high level of service to you, irrespective of any commissions we receive. Our fees make it possible to deliver a great level of service to you and your employees all year round.
We earn 10% commissions of the benefit premiums on all Group Risk Products. For example, if a Death in Service scheme is costing a client £2,000, we earn £200 commission from the provider. As you can see from this example, in the Small-medium Enterprise space, the revenue we receive from commissions is not always enough to provide you with the comprehensive level of service you should expect.

We are independent, and we review the market for you every single year. By reviewing the market every year, we can often negotiate lower rates for you. Over the course of an established relationship, we regularly save our clients more than the commissions we receive. Not only this, but we also often save our clients more than the fees and commissions we receive from our clients combined.

Commission levels vary dramatically so coming to a decision on the commissions we receive is not an exact science. Firstly, 10% across the board for all Group Risk Products is easy to understand for both the client and us.
From our many years’ experience of providing employee benefits to companies in the SME space, we have found 10% to be a fair arrangement for us and the client. 10% commission supplements our fees to a level where we can deliver the level of service, we pride ourselves on, operate profitably, and does not adversely impact the client.

It varies but, in our experience, most traditional Employees Benefit brokers and consultants in the market choose to receive nearer 20% commissions from providers. All Brokers and consultants must receive the level of commission that they feel is suitable for their business, however we personally believe this model to be skewed in favour of delivering a more reactive service, as opposed to the proactive partnership model we deliver.

Yes. However, to be transparent, we will most likely charge you an inflated fee versus the normal commissions received. This is to cover a) any fluctuations of membership in the year which may affect premiums b) Additional time spent on calculating comparative fees and c) Consistent monitoring of the scheme to ensure our fees are fair to all parties. Therefore, typically our standard fee and commission model is the most simple and fairest model for us to operate by.