PIFC Consulting - In perfect harmony

Sponsored by Cover

Finalists 2008

- PIFC Consulting
- Pulse Insurance
- West Country Health Care

The fact that an absent employee is an unproductive one is undeniable but PIFC Consulting is one firm that has been working hard to change this. In trying to effectively manage employee productivity, it has developed the Health and Productivity Management initiative.

This entails the development of a cohesive practice aligning and integrating the insurance benefits of clients to their HR practises, such as absence management and wellbeing initiatives. The result is that cost benefits are passed onto the client immediately, while safeguarding future corporate health through improved absence management.

An annual programme of meetings and reviews are held throughout the initiative from the outset, moulded to a structured approach to risk underwriting and claims management. To further enable this, PIFC Consulting has developed a programme that models claims experience over a period of years to analyse different weightings. The results are used to test the credibility of providers' pricing proposals.

PIFC Consulting's results say it all. One firm it dealt with, a city inter-dealer broker, has a culture that reflects its high earning with corresponding stresses. For the preceding three renewals of its group income protection scheme, only the incumbent provider was prepared to tender. Complying with age discrimination legislation meant that the company would have to consider accepting a potentially huge increase in the cost of group IP cover or reduce the level of benefit provided to staff. Neither solution was deemed satisfactory.

Accordingly, the key objective was to resolve this conundrum by attracting a competitive tender to allow legislative compliance without a cost increase. To reduce the exposure of the provider to group IP claims, PIFC Consulting identified a need to establish a more robust absence recording and management process, change the corporate attitude to absence costs, as well as employee health and wellbeing, and take a holistic approach to absence through intervention and rehabilitation processes.

PIFC Consulting looked at what claims experience the company had, and what its protocols were for the management of those claims, identifying that a more disciplined approach to the reporting of absences may be the impetus for better opportunities to tackle problems early on long-term absences.

It was able to put together a package of absence recording solutions that offered differing levels of flexibility, versatility and cost. The selected solution was part of a module platform that could deliver reward statements and adjustable benefits in the long-term. In order to keep the new system running smoothly, practices and procedures were introduced to work alongside managers that used the absence recording platform as the trigger to mobilise the intervention processes.

The outcomes were immediate and numerous: there was an initial saving to the client of £125,000; the new provider worked to ensure early intervention and claims management was integral to the system; health awareness was raised across the workforce and, as a result, absences stretching out to meet the claims stage of IP have been drastically reduced.

Another firm to benefit was a global-relationship law firm. It was essential for this firm that any solution in the UK would wholly support a strategy of global workplace health and wellbeing promotion. This process required design and delivery of a comprehensive communications programme to convey clear messages promoting the harmonisation of benefits.

A detailed report and presentation provided a variety of design solutions with an accompanying commentary on the various components. Each recommendation was referenced to show the impact and relevance to the overall strategy of health and wellbeing, including cost and risk implications. This enabled the client to make clear informed decisions on future benefits, allowing PIFC Consulting to return to the insurance market in order to negotiate the best options available. A central element to the solution was the need to support and promote health and wellbeing in the workplace through a structured vitality programme.

It was possible to negotiate terms with a single provider that could deliver quality solutions across all the health and risk benefits. The next vital part of the process was to ensure these messages were conveyed adequately to staff, and this was achieved through onsite presentations, alongside e-mail and insurer-produced documentation. The resulting benefit design not only co-ordinated with the wellness strategy but also delivered enhanced benefits to all parties.

A programme of health and wellbeing education on exercise, stress management and nutrition helped deliver a high level of employee engagement, closely monitored through structured management information. By taking these measures, the client's underwriting profile improved and risk performance leading to annual savings of £20,000 for medical insurance and £60,000 for IP cover.

For the British Insurance Awards inaugural Health and Protection Intermediary of the Year winner, the judges were looking for the firm that "demonstrated how it has responded to demands of consumers for products relevant to their needs and delivered them with top-quality service". PIFC Consulting has shown itself to be a firm that fully assesses its clients' needs and offers valid solutions in the context of profitable growth and, therefore, proved to be a very worthy winner of this award.