What is the Best Time to Start a Benefits Plan?

As the talent war rages, many small businesses have turned to benefits as a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors and recruit great talent to their teams. Recent reports have found that benefits are one of the most important factors in the war for talent. In fact, nearly 2/3 of Canadians have reported that their employee benefits package is a major factor in their decision to remain in their current role.With the increased importance of benefits, small businesses and their owners have been left with many questions. Can I afford group benefits for my team? What plan will give my team the flexibility they need? And when is the best time to implement a company benefits plan?When it comes to designing your benefits plan, it is important to understand that benefits are a highly regulated industry. In general, while employers can purchase and implement a plan at any time, health and employee benefits follow the calendar year. This means that all maximums and caps are all reset starting on January 1^st.Because of this structure, starting your plan on January 1^st has some natural advantages.

• First, it means that you and your employees only must go through the set up and allocation process once.
• Second, from an administration perspective, beginning in January also means that owners and/or administrators do not have to worry about issues like pro-rating benefits based on the amount of time left in the year or worrying about rollover benefits from the previous year. Instead, employers can have a clean slate to work with.
• Finally, starting your plan in January is easier from a plan communication perspective since you only need to provide details about your company plan once.

Right now, is a great time to start thinking about implementing a plan for next year. By beginning to explore your options and cost, you will be able to find or create a plan that works for your team.With a BeniPlus Wallet, you can design the perfect plan to fit your small business’s needs. Our Wallet system allows you to determine how much you would like to spend on benefits and how to divide those benefits between your team members. We have no premiums or up-front costs. Plus, you never pay for benefits that you do not use and cost will not go up.With a BeniPlus Wallet, your employees will also have amazing flexibility how to structure and use their benefits dollars. Our proprietary system means that your team members will be able to divide their benefits between their eligible wallet categories of:

• Healthcare Spending Account (HSA) which covers expenses like prescriptions, dental, mental health, vision care and hospital care.
• Wellness Spending Account (WSA) which covers wellness expenses such as paramedical expenses, sports and exercise, professional development, and family care.
• Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) which allows team members to save for retirement.
• Personal Insurance products such as Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Major Medical and Travel Insurance, and Disability Insurance.
• Charitable Giving which allows employees to devote some or all of their benefits dollars to a registered Canadian charity of their choice through our partnership with CanadaHelps.

Even better, your employees will have complete flexibility to utilize their benefits within those categories for any eligible expense they wish.For more information about how a BeniPlus Wallet can help provide your Small Business or SME with the simple, flexible and affordable benefits they need, get a quote today