With a whopping 91 percent, Canadians prefer their state sponsored healthcare over a U.S. style system. It probably helps that the provincially managed Medicare system is cost effective and simple to maintain also. Regardless of the group health benefits, most Canadian health care costs get funded from income taxes, their are some implications to employee benefit solutions.
When putting together employee benefits packages, it is essential to have an employee benefit audit in place to comply with changing regulations and best practices. The Canadian Employee Health Benefits Plan is a way of locking in pricing and benefits based on the employee benefits insurance premiums. Whether you are looking at business insurance costs, deferred compensation retirement plans, or fairly straight forward employee benefit planning, some due diligence will allow you to stay competitive in the marketplace, especially in lieu of the CEHBP.
When you have quality employees, you should consider what group health benefits you can reasonably offer to them without adversely affecting other services. Sometimes salary is not the only consideration for employees and potential recruits. An employee benefit audit can help you structure packages that include additional insurance components, and any additional group benefits deemed necessary. Frequently the cost of additional benefits to employees is much lower than employee turnover or cash incentives.
At the most basic level, look at the number of paid company holidays and other paid time off. You should insure that it fits into the best practices for your industry and you can provide some flexibility as well with unpaid leave or floating holidays as necessary. You will have to look at your legal obligations when it comes to insurance packages and subsidies, but frequently salaried employees expect a certain level of coverage to be paid or reimbursed by the employer.
You should be aware that as you set up insurance and retirement benefits that they come with their own set of government regulations. This is where you will need some granular oversight and an employee benefit audit to maintain compliance. For example, if you have both full time and part time employees, there may be different requirements around exclusions of any benefits.