Financial services firm Quantum Advisory has launched a tailored employee benefits service for small to medium enterprise (SME) employers.
Through the service, SMEs will be able to access advice on group risk, healthcare and wellbeing benefits that will be bespoke to them.
Principal consultant Graham Yearsley, who leads the employee benefits team at Quantum, said: “Although gradually improving, the experience of small to medium employers in the market is generally still poor – they are often overlooked, cannot access the same resources and opportunities as larger organisations, and the quality of advice and consultancy they receive can be lacking. With SMEs by far the majority of the market, the disparity in service levels is unacceptable.”
He said that government statistics show that 5.51 million UK businesses in the private sector have less than 49 employees, which accounts for 99.2 percent of the total business population. Around 37,000 are medium sized with 50 to 249 employees, while 8,000 are large with 250 employees or more.
The number of SMEs are growing, he said, highlighting figures for 2023 that showed there has been an increase of 0.8 percent from 2022.
“Employee benefits programmes are critical attraction and retention tools – meeting employee expectations, ensuring the wellbeing and ongoing loyalty of staff, as well as optimising engagement. Getting it right is important whatever your size, but for SMEs it’s crucial,” he said.
“Recruitment is extremely competitive at the best of times and offering ever increasing salaries simply isn’t an affordable option, and neither does it address the overall wellbeing of staff. Frequent staff turnover can also be a real issue for a small employer, and difficult to manage. An expertly executed benefits package can have a big impact on an employment decision and, by proxy, the quality and loyalty of a team. It has to include honest investments in employees’ financial security, total health and career growth. As well, of course, as being accessible and affordable for an employer.”
