The right benefits package will vary for each company. To establish what is best for you, the team at Bigmore Benefits will conduct a comprehensive discovery session so we can design the right package for you and your employees. If possible, it's great to get your employees input, and we are happy to support with this.
All companies are different, and packages should be designed specific to a companies specific requirements and budget.
We have a tailored framework we have designed we call The Four P's. The Four P's forms the foundation of all company benefit packages we help design.
Firstly, we would love to establish if a flexible benefits package is suitable for you. In our experience, often in the Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) space, companies confuse flexible benefits for 'choice'. True flexible benefit packages only work best for companies with a minimum of 250 employees or more. Once we have established and agreed the most suitable package for you, we'll get to work in delivering it. If a flexible benefits package is suitable, we can help to design and deliver this. We will help you to choose the most suitable technology platform and work closely with the provider to roll this out. We love using technology to support with the running of an employee benefits programme. However, we strongly believe it should be used in conjunction with a personal touch. It's our belief that a benefits package, delivered solely by technology with inevitably fall down through lack of engagement.
Cost. Service. Time. Knowledge. Audit. Risk.
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.
By using a partner like Bigmore Benefit, you can be certain 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 a thorough renewal review process. In addition, we provide comprehensive support to you and you employees saving you both time, and ensuring your employees truly value the Employee Benefits you are providing.
If you have a company with employees it is a legal requirement to provide a Workplace Pension and non-compliance will result in significant penalties applied by the Pension Regulator. There is no legal requirement to provide other Employee Benefits however, we strongly believe failure to do so can affect your ability to recruit and retain quality people. The key message we often try to deliver is 'Employee Benefits do not have to be expensive. Employees typically respect when a company is trying to provide for them within its means.’
It's really easy to put a Benefits package in place. Once we have worked with you to design your scheme, we have a simple 7 stage process.
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:
- Letters of appointment to send to all holding providers (if applicable) (week1)
- Client Agreement
- Service Level agreements
- 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
Probably not! - We can help companies with 2 or more employees.
We love this question because to our knowledge, we are unique in the industry by providing comprehensive support to employees.
We provide an Employee Support line. Your employees can contact us anytime between 9.00am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday and as part of our standard Service Level Agreements we'll always get back to your employees within 48 hours.
We love to see our clients grow as we believe our service provides core foundations of growth. If you grow to a level where you start acquiring other companies, we have vast experience in managing all TUPE requirements for Employee Benefits.
If you grow to a level where you are acquired, we will work closely with you and the other firm to support with any Employee Benefit requirements. This includes helping to amalgamate your benefit structure with the buyer, or working cooperatively with the other company and it's suppliers to transfer employee benefits away from our management.
There are no penalties applied by us in this scenario, however, we may be required to charge a project fee for services delivered outside of our standard scope of services.
The top three sought after Employee Benefits by individuals in the UK are: Flexible working, Competative pension scheme and Private Medical Insurance.
Bigmore Benefits review Employee Benefits every year for cost and suitability. We are able to do this because we work as a genuine partner and our data always mirrors our clients, meaning we can operate proactively. Many brokers will only review benefits once every two years. This is because they operate on a more reactive model, and need to request the data from the client.
We strongly believe Employee Benefits are an Investment and not a cost. According to Oxford school of economics, the average cost to replace an employee in the UK is approximately £28,000. This takes into account, recruiment costs, exit inteviews, training, loss of sales etc. Therefore, if a company of 50 employees has to replace 7 employees a year, this would equate to a cost to the company of £196,000.
If you have a competitive Employee Benefits package that supports retention of key employees, this can save the company money. For example, as a rough guide, excluding workplace pensions (as this is compulsory) an employee Benefit package may cost a company between 2% - 8% of basic salary roll. For a company with 50 employees, and salary roll of £1,650,000 this would equate to a Benefit package cost of £33,000 - £132,000 per year.
Therefore, if a benefits package can support in retaining employees then it will save the company money.
It's important to note, this doesn't take into account the less tangible elements that a strong culture will give; such has staff morale and productivity. Lastly, don't be under the illusion that an Employee Benefit package in isolation is the answer to attract and retain great employees. It should be ran in conjunction with a range of other strategies that support a healthy company culture. Employee Benefits do, however, form part of the foundation of these strategies.
We work with all payroll and HR software providers and will work collaboratively to deliver the best result for our clients.
We go to market ever year, specifically to protect to premiums and sustainability of the schemes. When we receive a cheaper quote from another medical provider, we will always in the first instance go back to the holding provider to see if they can reduce or match the better rate.
We try not to move Medical cover if we can avoid it because it can be disruptive to employees and their claims. However, occasionally the cost saving to our clients is too big to ignore. When this is true, we ensure the following:
1. There are no larger claims being processed that may be affected by the switch.
2. All medical switches are conducted on a like for like basis.
3. There are no claims or serious illness that may affect a switch.
4. The receiving Medical provider does not have any stipulations that may affect a clean switch
5. All communications to employees are clear and concise, and if employees have ongoing claims, they are aware of how these continue.
Typically when you leave an organisation, your Employee Benefits cease. Some benefits such as Pension and Private Medical Insurance may be transferrable, however, this must be reviewed on a case by case basis. We will support you with this process.
Benefits provided to employees within a group benefits package are normally cheaper than Risk products that are purchased individually. This is because a group scheme benefits from a diversity of risk across many members. In addition, cover levels available in the group market can often be greater because the diversity of risk allows the cover to be higher. Also, unlike personal cover, in a group scheme individuals often enjoy automatic coverage up to a designated level, without the need for underwriting. This is appealing because an employee with previous or current health challenges can receive a level of cover that they would not be able to receive in the individual market.
Bigmore Benefits believe that we are the best cost-value proposition in the market.
We operate as a genuine partner, meaning we support you with all elements of your benefits package. The way we do this is by working a little bit like a payroll bureau meaning our data always mirrors yours. This allows us to be proactive in supporting you and your employees. A full scope of the services we provide can be found in ours fees section.
However, to share some key areas of support we provide your employees:
• 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
We provide an Employee Benefits Portal as part of our Partnership propositions. A live demo is available on request.
We act as a genuine partner to our clients, and therefore we believe our scope of services is typically more comprehensive than our competitors. A scope of our services and associated fees can be found on our fees page.
Bigmore Benefits operates in the UK, and has a passport to deliver Employee Benefits in Ireland. Should clients require International Benefits, we have a range of affiliates around the globe in most major jurisdictions that can support with the running of your benefits.
It's important for companies to understand (especially in the Small-Medium Enterprise space) that Employee Benefits should be design and ran for the specific environment. In our opinion, continuity of Employee Benefits within different jurisdictions should not be a priority as different requirements are needed for each country and sector.
Great question! We strongly believe that in order to talk the talk we have to walk the walk. If you would like to see a copy of our Employees Benefits Booklet, please drop us an email.
It's likely our booklet will demonstrate a comprehensive strategy to support employees with their Health and Wellbeing and Financial Wellness.
All data is processed and stored consistent with GDPR regulations.
We operate a little like a payroll bureau meaning our data always mirrors yours. This means we will securely request and process any changes of membership data every month. This often works in line with your payroll process.
As we also provide Payroll services we often work in unison with our payroll department to support you. This makes everything really easy for you.
We do not yet interface directly with HR systems. We are working towards this, however, it will only be available for selected HR softwares.
It's important to note, this is also true for many HR and Payroll systems, so a standard export file works just fine.
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.
These indicative costs will typically be provided within 72 hours from our discovery call. We will discuss your options and listen to your thoughts and feedback. At this stage there is no financial commitment from yourself.
We have complete confidence that this approach aligned with our in-depth knowledge across the employee benefits marketplace will give you the framework for the perfect solution to the benefits package you want to deliver to your employees.
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.
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.
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.
We provide three propositions to our clients; Launchpad, Engage and Connect and Partnership.
Once you have decided to proceed to paid proposal the following one-off engagement fees are charged:
• Launch pad - Engagement fee £245
• Engage & Connect - Engagement fee £295
• Partnership- Engagement fee £345
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 will then present the complete benefits proposal to you to get your thoughts and feedback.
Please note that at this stage you are not obligated to proceed with the proposal or use Bigmore Benefits, however, in our experience we have found that over 95% of companies do.
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.
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.
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.
"CB Benefits support HLW with all aspects of the administration of our employee benefits package, implementing the agreed schemes efficiently and effectively and updating us on any changes as appropriate. Their team is always willing to answer any questions, from the firm perspective and from individual employees and Dave Sykes is happy to visit our offices for personal consultations with the management team and to conduct inductions with staff into the benefits and pension scheme we operate. They have a friendly and professional approach at all times and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to other firms.”
Request a quote and experience our top class support first hand.
Please use the form below to get in touch with us.
Input your search keywords and press Enter.