ORBIT BENEFITS CASE STUDY
Benfield Group steps up employee satisfaction with online pension calculator
Benfield Group, the UK-based insurance intermediary, prides itself on the generosity of its benefits package, with a pension scheme as the cornerstone of its offering. The company pays twice the national average for employer contributions, so the scheme is certainly something to shout about. Now it has introduced the TIMA pension calculator from Orbit Benefits to do just that.
TIMA works as an automated communication tool in an on-line system. Employees can see the current value of their pension fund and interact with TIMA for an instant view of different planning scenarios, bringing tangibility to the Group's flagship benefit for the first time. Before instalment of the service, the 800+ employees in the UK only had access to pension information in the form of an annual written statement.
“Hiding such a crucial benefit from view was a missed opportunity”
Tracey Marshall Head of Human Resources at Benfield Group.
The initial reaction among employees to the service, introduced in September 2002, was surprise at the amount contributed by the company.
“Since we launched TIMA, people have been commenting on how good the pension contributions are and it has become a real talking point”
Tracey Marshall Head of Human Resources at Benfield Group.
Ms Marshall added that such benefits are invaluable for engendering staff loyalty. TIMA is now one of the services shown to prospective employees as a value-adding part of the benefits package.
TIMA has stimulated much greater interest around the wider issues of financial planning. With a database that is pre-populated with employees' personal details, the service provides an instant and accurate forecast of their projected pension. Employees can change the variables to see the effects of actions like investing more, retiring at different ages and taking a contribution break.
“Now employees are thinking about their pension options, whereas before they tended to take this benefit for granted, despite its importance. It has been a great educational tool and has taken our communication with employees up a couple of steps.”
Tracey Marshall Head of Human Resources at Benfield Group.
The acquisition of a US company in 2001 has forced the Group to think about how it communicates its services. This has highlighted stark contrasts between the US and the UK in how involved employees are in financial planning. With TIMA now deployed in the UK, the balance is being redressed, with all staff across the Group taking a greater involvement in services. Due to the success of TIMA, Benfield Group intends using this model as a building block for other resources.
“TIMA has made us think about taking other processes on-line and giving employees greater choice.”
Tracey Marshall Head of Human Resources at Benfield Group.
The ease of use of TIMA has been crucial to its adoption among staff. Orbit Benefits and Benfield Group's HR and IT departments worked together to pre-populate the password-controlled database with employees' details so they could access the service straight away. Orbit Benefits maintains TIMA, updating and refreshing the database as staff circumstances change.
“The magic of TIMA is that it is so simple to use that staff really can just dip into it in their coffee breaks.”
Tracey Marshall Head of Human Resources at Benfield Group.
About Benfield Group
Benfield Group Ltd is one of the world's leading reinsurance intermediaries and risk advisers, with over 1,600 employees and more than 30 offices worldwide. Headquartered in the UK, it provides a range of specialist reinsurance, insurance and risk advisory services to a global customer base.
About Orbit Benefits
Orbit implements and runs on-line employee benefit packages for UK corporate clients using its own Internet-based technology platform (visit www.orbitbenefits.com). The Orbit proposition gives companies and their employees a combination of on-line empowerment and off-line expertise from qualified financial advisors. With a 'self-service' capability and personalised interactive tools, employees enjoy full control over their benefits, including pensions from leading UK providers and protection schemes, like healthcare, with any insurer. Employers gain through heightened awareness and appreciation of benefits, improved productivity in their HR team and greater control over costs.
Orbit provides Total Reward Statements and flexible benefits on the same technology platform to give companies the option of an integrated benefits solution from one supplier. With the A Day pension changes coming into force in April 2006, Orbit is already well-positioned to help UK companies plan for the future. Orbit Benefits Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is a member of the SBJ group.
This case study was updated in April 2006.
Contact Orbit
www.orbitbenefits.com
info@orbitbenefits.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7204 1212
Fax: +44 (0)20 7204 1313
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