Being a child of a certain generation, I know many, many things.
I know that you shouldn’t step on an ant, but you should “walk this way”, that you need to “wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care”, while remembering to “fight for your right to party”, and that “love will tear us apart”.
Some songs contained messages. Some things I learned immediately: Paul Hardcastle taught me the average age of the combat soldier in Vietnam. The Special AKA told me who Nelson Mandela was.
Over time, and with maturity, I was led to appreciate the real meanings of some songs – to understand why the Boomtown Rats didn’t like Mondays; the significance of Enola Gay’s kiss for her little boy; that “early morning, April 4, shot rings out in the Memphis sky” reflected the assassination of Martin Luther King; and that Ian Curtis’s words portrayed more than I initially thought.
Songs are a little like employee benefits. Some benefits we think we understand straight away. Pensions (like ants) are common, and while we do step on the ants, we know what a pension is, what it does, and how it works in principle.
Appreciate the value
Some benefits portray the message of the possibility. Group life benefits are something we don’t want to receive but we appreciate the value.
However, too many employee benefits are like the songs with hidden meanings: income protection, personal accident, health cover, executive and financial counselling. Even the perceived understandable pension and group life cover have hidden depths and ways in which they can be structured to create the best outcome, or can be inadvertently sabotaged to a member’s detriment.
How often do we hear a song and feel that the words portray our life, or the life we want?
We can all plan for the future we hope to have, and while we do need to factor in flexibility and unforeseen circumstances, where terminal illness is involved, or sudden death occurs, existing planning is often ripped apart.
As is often the case, employers may have never dealt with a terminal illness case, or a sudden death.
Employers may have a great employee benefit package, but this needs to be correctly communicated to both the HR department and employees alike.
A good understanding of all flexibility within the benefits structure is paramount to ensure that benefits are maximised.
Scenarios where terminally ill employees have taken pension benefits believing this to be the best option not appreciating the value of a PHI scheme, or understanding the effect retirement can have on group life benefits and indeed pension benefits. Cases where healthcare benefits have not been accessed because treatment is covered under the NHS, with the employee not appreciating that benefits could still be triggered. Stories where state benefits were lost or compromised due to a lack of understanding of how state benefits interact with other benefits. All these are not uncommon.
Work family
‘Work family’ can often be as valuable as real family, and employers should also consider the effect that serious illness and the death of a colleague can have on the workforce. Employers without their own in-house financial support may wish to consider having pensions counselling and support available for staff with a long-term illness. The ability to be able to support staff goes beyond that one person, it shows all employees within the ‘work family’ that the employer is there and able to help.
Retirement planning is fluid and benefit structures, circumstances, and legislation can change.
The group Talk Talk told us that “life’s what you make it”, but also reminded us that you can’t backdate it. So even when you think that ‘the world is your oyster’, employees and employers need to plan for ‘end credits’.
Karena Woodall is a consultant at Mattioli Woods
The post Full potential: Are employee benefit packages working? appeared first on Retirement Planner.