Ambition Issue 53 (July/August)

FEATURE

The Talent Retainer Protecting Staff Wellbeing A

new corporate membership club at Kingsbridge Private Hospital Group is giving NI businesses and their employees free access to invaluable health services. Fiona Dowds, head of Sales and Group Business Development at Kingsbridge, explains why the new employee reward system could be an asset for attracting staff. Launching this month is Kingsbridge Private Hospital Group’s Membership Club, solely for businesses.

during the pandemic. She explains: “We launched that programme as a way to engage with the business community; to offer health and wellbeing and some discounts on healthcare. “We did this because we know not every corporation is able to offer full private medical insurance, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity. It makes private healthcare accessible to all, so employers can offer employees and their families discounted healthcare.”

It’s a dual offering of free and paid-for services that employers can offer to their employees as part of their reward system. Those services fall under new Diamond and Platinum membership levels.

Spreading the word of the new scheme was done through a range of corporate roadshows which saw some of the Kingsbridge team visit business sites and offer health checks, sessions with health specialists and for those working remotely, webinars.

Both schemes allow employees to receive discounted and preferential rates on a range of treatments and surgeries, along with access to a range of other exclusive benefits including easy access to specialists via the hospital’s online membership portal and rapid access to referrals.

“When Covid hit, we moved a lot of our engagement online. The demand drove us to redevelop the membership scheme. We have invested £20,000 into a membership portal and now we’re relaunching the scheme as the Kingsbridge Membership Club,” she continues.

It’s an offering that is going to allow NI firms to ramp up their wellbeing offering in an era of skills deficits and talent bargaining.

The free Diamond Membership element of the new scheme allows employers access to Kingsbridge’s Membership Portal from which employees build a profile and avail of other services including discounts off private healthcare

Fiona says the scheme is an evolved offering of a programme implemented

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treatments, access to the ‘ask a specialist a question’ feature and wellbeing resources as well as rapid access to GP referrals. Meanwhile the Platinum Membership, which costs £50 per employee per month, allows all of the above and unlimited GP appointments for staff and their family, a dedicated SMS booking service, guaranteed appointments within 24 hours and a dedicated patient liaison officer. “This is not an insurance product; this is a staff perk that allows employers to engage in their employees’ health and wellbeing. Today the business world, in many sectors, is not just about the salary anymore; it’s about what you can give your employees in addition to that,” says Fiona. “Across every sector there is a struggle to attract staff. We hear this at events and there’s also a struggle to retain staff and what we’re finding is, every sector is looking for a perk that shows they care about the wellbeing of their staff. By using this product, from the experts in health and wellbeing, you’re really sending out a message.” Kingsbridge is Northern Ireland’s largest private healthcare group, offering private medical and surgical outpatient services (including a private GP service), private diagnostics services (x-ray, MRI, CT and