Over the past few years the dental insurance market has grown at a rapid pace. But what has spurred this growth? Andrew Morris argues auto-enrolment (AE) has been a major contributing factor.
AE has certainly helped to engage employees in planning for their retirement. However, it has also had a knock on effect on employee remuneration packages, and subsequently National Dental Plan have seen a rise in organisations choosing to offer dental insurance.
As they fulfil their legal duty to automatically enrol eligible employees onto a pension scheme, organisations have had to look at how they implement the complex process.
There are a number of solutions available to them, including using a pension scheme provider, a payroll system or a flexible benefit platform.
What we've seen is a steady increase in organisations choosing delivery via flexible benefit platforms because of their technology and administrative capabilities.
An additional advantage for employers is that not only do these platforms help to deliver AE but at the same time, or in the future, there is the potential to also offer voluntary benefits to employees at little or no additional cost to them.
Using flexible benefit platforms for AE has provided employers with an apt opportunity to review their wider benefits offering.
With dental insurance being a low cost, high value benefit, many organisations that previously offered no dental cover to employees now do.
This shift, created by the tidal wave of change that has been AE - has also been met with increased demand from employees for dental cover.
Dental insurance is regularly reported as being one of the top three benefits employees say they want from employers. In fact, Capita Employee Benefit's latest employee insight survey shows dental insurance is the second most popular benefit.
So why is dental insurance proving to be so popular with employees? One key reason has been the increased cost of dental treatment, which is backed up by British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) research, which shows that the primary motive for dental appointment cancellations over the last 12 months is the fear of the potential treatment cost.
The second is that it is one of the few preventative healthcare covers available to employees that includes check-ups and hygienist treatments, as well as more serious restorative work.
Dental insurance is probably the most claimed benefit in an employee remuneration package. Simply put, once people buy dental insurance, they are very keen to use it.
Giving employees access to dental treatments at appropriate prices will encourage them to regularly visit a dentist.
Offering dental insurance helps employees with dental charges, but dental plans also promote good dental health among a workforce, which can help an employer reduce absenteeism.
With AE continuing to be rolled out - we'd fully anticipate more companies looking to review their benefit packages.
With dental insurance so high on the employees ‘want' list we'd expect many more companies thinking about introducing this type of cover, either on a company-paid or voluntary basis.
Andrew Morris is business development director at National Dental Plan (NDP)
