The Health Insurance Group ViaNabo
The Health Insurance Group (THIG) has introduced what it says is the industry’s most competitively priced employee benefits portal, ViaNabo™.
ViaNabo™ has been designed to assist SMEs with 20 to 500 staff in managing their employee benefits and promoting health and wellbeing.
The system consists of four modules, enabling companies to mix and match according to their business needs and budget.
The primary employee benefits and engagement module, ViaNabo™ Core, costs £6 a year per user. The cost for all four modules, which include HR tools, employee assistance programme, manager support and employee discounts is £26 per employee per year.
ViaNabo™ Core allows companies to combine their existing employee benefits programme with ViaNabo™, as well as providing the ability to issue total reward statements, send out company announcements, store contact directories and document libraries. Health and wellbeing benefits include nutrition support and access to Active+, the online retail platform from AXA PPP healthcare that offers a range of products to help improve all aspects of a person’s health, fitness and wellbeing.
The optional HR module, ViaNabo™ HR, offers additional online capabilities including the management of grievance and disciplinary issues, holidays and sickness and absence. It provides expenses management for the employer, whilst its employees can upload expenses on the go. It can also create and manage job vacancies.
ViaNabo™ Support, the optional employee assistance programme (EAP) module is provided by partner, Health Assured. ViaNabo™ Support provides employee assistance, including unlimited 24-hour access to qualified counsellors who can address lifestyle issues such as bereavement, debt, health, housing, childcare, eldercare or other concerns. Day one stress intervention, and serious illness and accident support is available, in addition to legal and tax advice. As well as supporting staff, ViaNabo™ Support offers assistance to managers including access to an occupational health advice line and services.
Advantage, powered by PeopleValue, is an optional module with single sign on straight through to a voluntary benefits and discounts platform, promoting the idea of helping wages to go further by offering staff regular access to a range of discounts and special offers on supermarket and high street shopping, as well as holiday and gym discounts.
| Module |
Core or optional? |
Cost per employee pa (+VAT) |
| ViaNabo™ Core – benefit management module | Core | £6 |
| ViaNabo™ HR – HR module | Optional | £6 |
| ViaNabo™ Support – EAP module | Optional | £9 |
| Advantage – employee discounts module | Optional | £5 |
Comment: For a large employer, managing the employee benefits scheme invariably involves a specialist team while, for micro businesses, EB can probably be arranged on an employee by employee basis. For those in the middle, a portal can be ideal – provided it offers the right benefits and the right price.
That’s the space THIG has launched ViaNabo into and it looks to meet both criteria. Priced from just £6 a year per employee, firms can have whatever additional modules they wish and even having all four takes the cost per employee up to just 50p a week – the coffee bill will be more. However, to that you have to add VAT, an initial set-up fee and an annual scheme fee, so the cost per employee can be much higher for the smallest firms.
Plus points: An inexpensive EB portal for SMEs; Cost from just £6 a year per employee; Choice of 1-4 modules, each individually costed.
Not so plus points: Many protection advisers see such schemes as outside their normal remit, yet the opportunity to provide client firms with much more than just insurance is an attractive one; Costs are +VAT, and as well as the per module cost, initial and annual scheme fees also apply.
Website: http://www.healthinsurancegroup.co.uk
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 8. Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: Other, The Health Insurance Group