The National House Building Council (NHBC) aims to take care of its 1,200 staff for the long term through its provision of group risk and healthcare benefits.
Employees receive group life insurance if they are part of the homeowners insurance firm’s group personal pension (GPP) scheme. The insurance policy consists of four times the employee’s annual salary to be passed onto dependants. Dependants of employees who are not a member of the pension scheme receive one year’s worth of salary. The benefit is also used as an incentive for employees not to opt out of the pension scheme.
John Attley, engagement manager at NHBC, says: “We want to look after the whole person in terms of wellbeing and group risk. We have built a landscape of benefits to help employees, even for what the future holds.”
NHBC’s healthcare provision includes an employee assistance programme (EAP), blood pressure checks, seasonal flu vaccinations, eye tests, private medical insurance (PMI), pilates classes, healthy-eating options in the head-office restaurant, gym membership offered via salary sacrifice and online health assessments that provide tailored feedback for all staff.
Attley adds: “Critical to success is to give all staff as many options as we can regardless of geography. For example, we can run a flu jab clinic in our head office, but give remote staff, about 60% of our colleagues, the option of a voucher they can redeem locally.”
With its average length of service for staff standing at nine years, NHBC recognises the need to provide health, wellbeing and group risk benefits for the long term.
Attley says: “When you combine group life insurance with other benefits and communication, it becomes part of the overall engagement piece.
”It is absolutely important for employees to see how healthcare and wellbeing aligns with group risk with a single, coherent campaign package.
”Inevitably, staff are going to be working longer, and the next generation will see the effects of that trickle through even more. That’s when group risk comes into its own.”