Post-pandemic business lessons to live by
4 ways that COVID-19 has helped us improve our international employee benefits offering
The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed how we live, work, and travel. In spite of having devastating economic consequences the world around, however, it has also revolutionised numerous industries and highlighted what strengths need to be amplified and what weaknesses need to be amended.
“While benefits have always been the primary concern of benefits managers and chief HR officers, COVID-19 reignited the conversation among the C-suite, who looked for ways to support their employees through these challenging times. Now, as employee wellbeing climbs toward the top of the priority list, benefits are front and center.” – BenefitsPro
We asked our Head of Distribution in the Americas, Rob Claudio, what lessons the long-term impact the pandemic has taught us about our international employee benefit offerings.
- Manage unpredictability by strategically spreading your risk
Although all insurers were affected by the unpredictability that COVID-19 brought, particularly when it came to risk forecasting, claims reserves and calculating premiums, some regions of the world faced greater pressures and restrictions than others. It’s for this reason that Rob says Unisure’s truly global footprint stood us in good stead.
“As a global organisation, we’re in a unique position where we have risk spread throughout the globe,” Rob says. “That doesn’t mean we don’t need to take a cautious approach on where we’re writing the business, what we’re costing it at, and how we’re structuring our networks, but we were fortunate to stand quite steadily as a group through those first two years of the pandemic.”
- Look for gaps in the market and fill them
As McKinsey said of their research around how the pandemic is influencing consumer decision-making of healthcare plans, “the health crisis is … creating a need for better coverage and plans that are more responsive to the pandemic”.
Unisure is a relatively new player in the insurance market, but we pride ourselves on our dynamic product offerings that come-in-hand with 24/7/365 concierge service. Products like our Umatter International Private Medical Insurance plans were built around listening to what brokers were saying their clients really needed and tailoring our plans around personalisation, global cover and benefit flexibility.
Understanding the gaps in the market and catering to those gaps is what we’ve become known for, as Rob explains.
“We get a lot of unique requests. Instead of outright saying ‘no’ to a request from, for example, the Ukraine, we start by taking a look at the risk and asking, ‘Do we have a solution that exists? If we don’t, can we create one?’ More often than not, we can, and we will then tailor a policy to match a client’s needs. That’s why our partners and clients are approaching us, and that’s what makes us an attractive solution in the market – we’re providing solutions that a lot of our competitors can’t.”
- Become a one-stop-shop
According to Mercer, an estimated 65% of organisations say they are re-evaluating their compensation and benefits offerings post the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it brought. One significant shift has been towards a greater use of global partners, particularly when it comes to offering teams across the world diverse and equitable benefits.
“At Unisure, we don’t separate expats from local nationals and that really sets us apart as a business,” Rob explains. “We treat each employee as one individual across the board, and we’re in a unique position where we can really bring everything under one umbrella. As an employer, you’re able to offer your teams all around the world equal international health and life cover under one policy. That’s one contract, one renewal, and dealing with one entity, which saves huge time, effort and administrative costs.”
- Put customer excellence first, all day and every day
Our Umatter IPMI division currently boasts a 98% retention rate, largely as a result of always putting our customers first. We do this in many ways, such as by responding to all client enquiries within one business day and giving clients direct access to Unisure staff, for example.
“Being a smaller, relatively new organisation, we’re extremely aware of the fact that our reputation is going to differentiate us in the long term,” Rob explains. “That means that if we cannot service a market to the level that we like to operate to, we won’t take a client on. You don’t often see that in this market unfortunately.”
As employees increasingly prioritise their work/life balance and place greater value on benefits and value-adds than ever before, it’s important for brokers and clients to be cognisant of first showing employees that their mental, physical and financial wellbeing is important, and secondly, ensuring that the benefits they offer are relevant, equitable and sought after. This is especially important in light of Gallup’s 2022 Wellbeing Culture Index online workplace survey, which found that only “24% of US workers strongly agree that their organisation cares about their wellbeing”.
If you want our expertise in helping your clients upgrade and/or set up relevant and dynamic international benefits for their company, let us offer you an obligation-free evaluation and quote. Visit our Group Life & Disability and Umatter pages, or get in touch with Rob Claudio (rob@unisuregroup.com / + 1 202 935 0533).
Sources:
- Interview with Unisure Assist’s Head of Distribution in the Americas, Rob Claudio, 6 March 2023