EMPLOYEE BENEFITS FOR AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING AND REPAIR SHOPS

Employee Benefits for Automotive Manufacturing and Repair Shops

An investment in sponsoring an employee benefits plan can yield important returns to organizations in the automotive industry – the right plan can help keep your employees healthy, committed and engaged in the workplace. If your current plan is not doing that, or worse yet, you don’t have an employee benefits plan yet, now is the time!

An Important Industry

The automotive industry is an important anchor for Canada’s economy. Manufacturing, repairs, sales and administrative positions in automotive manufacturing and repair employ a lot of Canadians. While much of Canada’s automotive manufacturing is located in central Canada, the entire country is full of sales, servicing and support organizations.

The sector has always needed highly skilled workers – but those skills are changing, particularly with the development of digital solutions and electric vehicle technology. Competition for these workers will increase, especially because those skills are transferrable to other sectors. As employers compete for these workers, employee benefits will become an increasingly important tool for employers to attract and retain their workforce.

Rolling out Employee Benefits

There are several important reasons to provide an employee benefits plan for your employees. The right employee benefits plan will support you and your business, but also your employees and their families. A typical employee benefits plan may include some or all of the following:

• Extended health
• Dental
• Vision care
• Disability benefits
• Life and Critical Illness coverage
• An Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP)
• Health Spending Account

While all these benefits are important, different components will matter more to you, to your employees and to your Plan Administrator.

For Employers

As an employer, the right employee benefits plan should give you options. The automotive industry is diverse – you may have a large manufacturing operation with hundreds of employees, or you may have a small, family-run repair shop; there is an employee benefits plan for both. If your operation is large, you may be looking to self-insure your employee benefits plan and find a provider for ‘administrative services only’ or ‘ASO.’ If your operation is small, you may be more interested in finding predictable premiums and a fully insured plan. Regardless, the right provider can provide you with the right option.

We know that cost containment matters to employers – after all your job is to make your business profitable. GroupHEALTH’s plans include built-in cost containment to ensure your plan is sustainable over the long term.

GroupHEALTH’s Smart Rx prescription drug coverage provides you with options to help contain costs. Options related to generic and brand name drugs, as well as remote dispensing opportunities provide great coverage at a lower cost.

Another cost control mechanism that should matter to you is disability management services. At GroupHEALTH, we believe in these services so much that we include them with our disability benefits coverage. These services support employees in returning to work as soon as they are able. Not only are these solutions good for your budget, but they are good for the health of your ill or injured employees.

For Employees

There are certain employee benefits that really hit home for employees. An employee and family assistance program (EFAP) is usually one of them. An employee and family assistance program provides support (counselling, podcasts, articles, and other resources) to help with mental health. It means employees can reach out (night or day) any day of the week and someone will be there to listen.

Another benefit that has become increasingly popular with employees is Virtual Healthcare. Virtual healthcare connects employees with doctors or nurse practitioners virtually, using a phone, tablet, or computer. Many health issues can be addressed via virtual healthcare; this saves employees time and money that would otherwise be spent driving to the doctor’s office. For the automotive industry, the 24/7 nature of virtual healthcare could be a great fit. Employees who have nighttime or weekend working hours may appreciate the ability to access healthcare outside of conventional working hours.

Accident and Serious Illness (ASI) coverage is another stand out benefit that employees value. It means that employees are not just covered in the event of a serious accident, but also if they are diagnosed with a critical illness. This is reassuring for employees; heart attacks, strokes and life-threatening cancer can happen to anyone.

For Plan Administrators

Your Plan Administrator (who manages the day-to-day performance of your plan) will be most interested in an enrollment process and platform that supports them in administrating the plan. A plan administrator may be overseeing a plan that covers employees in multiple locations and divisions. GroupHEALTH’s Enrol-ME is an online enrollment platform that can help with this, available to enrolling employees on their computers, tablets, or phones. Online enrollment means no chasing employees for paper copies, deciphering their writing or following up on incomplete enrollment cards. Employees are walked through the enrollment process, and they receive automatic reminders about deadlines and incomplete aspects of their enrollment. This can save a lot of time (and money) when enrolling a diverse employee base.

Your Plan Administrator will also be interested to learn that GroupHEALTH’s plans are managed through an online platform called WEBS online. This platform was designed with Plan Administrators in mind and is both powerful and user-friendly. Your Plan Administrator will be able to automate some of the key duties and day-to-day tasks associated with administering a plan. The bottom line is that it will free up your Plan Administrator to complete other more pressing duties.

Retain and Recruit Employees

One of the most salient reasons to sponsor an employee benefits plan is to retain the employees you have and attract new workers. Automotive manufacturing and repair shops have a diverse workforce, including sales, shop, administrative, management and manufacturing. Skilled and experienced employees are always needed, and an employee benefits program is a powerful way to attract them. For many employees, the presence of and type of employee benefits plan available at a prospective employer are determining factors in accepting or rejecting an offer. An employee benefits plan is becoming standard within your industry; make sure you have the right plan to compete in this competitive market.

Good Advice is Key

Are you in the automotive manufacturing or repair shop business? Do you have the right employee benefits plan to help you attract and retain the workers that you want? Review your options with one of our licensed advisors on the phone, or contact us for a comparison quote.

Whether you’re looking for extended health and dental coverage, disability coverage, or life and critical illness coverage, GroupHEALTH has affordable benefits packages that work as hard as you do.