New Brookfield Healthcare Partnership Brings Extra Benefits to Pilots
Brookfield Aviation International has recently appointed Engage Health Group, a UK based benefits brokerage and consultancy, with a specialist International benefits channel, to arrange International Private Medical Insurance for its pilots.
Having a quality private medical insurance provision has long-been an attractive benefit. However, providing medical coverage for an expatriate, or globally mobile population can make it both complex and expensive if you don’t access the right expertise to navigate the marketplace. What was once a nice additional perk is increasingly a standard requirement, particularly within the competitive aviation industry. There are a number of reasons behind the increasing need for a cohesive international benefits strategy;
1. Competition for top talent
Attracting the best possible calibre of contractors has always been a focus for Brookfield, like most successful businesses. An international benefits package not only allows the benefits to follow team members around the world as they travel and relocate as required, it also provides the very best level of coverage available across any domestic market. An increasing number of companies are using these benefits for their C-Suite positions and hard-to-recruit specialisms, purely for the richness of benefit and flexibility that they provide.
2. Increasing regulatory requirements
Since the financial crash in 2008, global compliance requirements for regulated insurance products have increased significantly. Not only in established Western and Asian markets as you may expect, but in developing and emerging economies too, keen to support their own growing financial sectors, protect their healthcare infrastructure and provide some control over expatriate immigration. There are many countries around the world which now require an expatriate to obtain a locally compliant, private medical insurance before they arrive, and a good number of those require proof it is in place before Visas are issued or renewed.
3. Duty of care
Expanding into new territories and winning new contracts is an exciting time in any business and it’s great to be part of a business on the up. However sending contractors into new territories also means taking on responsibility for not only the welfare of that person, but also any family members moving with them. Getting an overseas placement wrong can also prove to be a costly exercise, the average expat assignment costs $311,000 in total and 40% of all overseas assignments are judged to be unsuccessful, the biggest reason being that contractors and their families can’t adjust to the local culture and environment. Putting the right benefits package in place means they can access the right support at the right time and provide a significant return on investment in the long run.
4. A desire to harmonise and simplify the benefits structure
Managing a single country benefits package is administration-heavy without the right support in place. Managing multiple packages across multiple countries, languages, regulations, cultures and time zones can drain resources both in time and cost, by not leveraging the scale of the total footprint, as well as creating an unequal benefits provision across the various locations. International benefits packages are often able to pool these multiple lines into a far most streamlined and effective solution.
Engage Health Group is a specialist international benefits intermediary, providing consultancy and broking services to a wide range of clients with a global or expatriate footprint, and hence a valuable business partner to Brookfield. International Director, Ian Abbott, has spent 10 years specialising in the International benefits market, firstly working for Bupa Global heading up their UK Distribution, before leaving to develop the international channel at Engage Health Group. For more information see the website engagehealthgroup.co.uk or contact Ian on +44 1273 974419 or by email ian.abbott@engagehealthgroup.co.uk
