Graphic showing what motivates employees.

What Can a Flexible Benefits Plan Offer Your Employees?

A flexible benefits plan for employees is tailored to meet employees’ unique personal needs.

A basic benefits plan offers employees a minimum level of employer-paid benefits such as:

  • Health
  • Dental
  • Accident
  • Disability
  • Life insurance

The plan is then topped up with “flex credits” (or a dollar amount), and put into a third party health spending account (HSA).

Employees can choose to use these credits to supplement their basic benefits coverage or to buy other kinds of benefits that may be more useful.

Typically, your third party administrator manages these taxable and non-taxable spending accounts and reimburses your employees as the employees incur expenses.

Flexible Benefits Plan Advantage

Also referred to as a “flex plan,” the customizable flexible benefits plan gives you (as an employer) a competitive advantage, and is often more highly valued by your employees than a traditional or fixed employee benefits plan.

The overall trend is for plan sponsors to move from traditional plans to a flexible one. There’s just one question to ask then. Is it time for you to switch to a Flexible Program in your workplace?

Factors to Consider

There are several factors to take into account when considering such a plan:

Flexibility: A flexible Benefits Plan is especially beneficial to workplaces with employees in every different stage of life. The benefit needs of a single 25-year-old male will be much different than a 38-year-old female with three kids at home, and different again for a 65-year-old male nearing retirement age. Flexible Benefits Plans allow your employees to use the benefits most relevant to themselves and their families.

Satisfaction: Employees feel empowered and in control when they get to choose how to spend their flex benefit plans. They will likely also feel like they have better coverage.

Costs: A Flexible Benefits Plan gives the employer the ability to control costs by setting benefit limits each year. This allows you to properly budget each month, and there will be no surprises come the end of the year.

Need More Information?

Are you second-guessing your “one-size-fits-all” employee benefits plan?

If you have questions or would to know how a Flexible Benefits Plan can help your employees, perhaps it’s time to talk our trusted Edmonton employee benefits broker, Daryl Smith.

Call Daryl Smith at 1-780-437-5070 or send him an Email.

You can also reach him through our online Contact Form.