The Anthony Nolan Trust provides lifesaving donors for patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. Since 1974, it has helped to give over 4,000 children and adults a new chance of life.  The charity employs 190 people across five main areas of work: tissue typing; research; donor recruitment and management; fundraising and administrative support.

In late 2005, the charity embarked on a radical review of its benefits programme.  This was driven partly by high staff turnover rates but also the need to understand exactly how they could develop a benefits package for staff at all grades and not just those in senior management roles.

Initially, the benefits assessment addressed three key areas: reducing the private healthcare bill, managing stress and long term absence and better support for working parents.  

“As a charity we will always be restricted by the salaries we can offer, but we wanted to add real value for our people by developing a great benefits package.  This really makes a difference to both existing and potential employees and demonstrates that we genuinely support our staff where we can,” explains HR officer, Sarah Woodruff.

Private healthcare for the senior management team had been in place for many years, but when the Anthony Nolan Trust came to renew their contract last year, they found that the premiums had spiraled out of control. It was clear they needed to review their existing supplier and look at other options.

“The figures that we were quoted to stay with our previous healthcare provider meant that there would be a 45% increase on our premiums which equated to an almost £10,000 increase.  That’s a lot of money to a charity like us,” says Sarah Woodruff.  “At that time the healthcare percentage increases were running at 11.8% so we expected there to be an increase but just not to such a great extent.”

The Anthony Nolan Trust called on employee health and wellbeing specialists, IHC for help in reducing their private healthcare costs. “The existing supplier had doubled their rates and expected the organisation to just accept the hike up in fees,” explains Paul Roberts, strategic director at IHC.  A secondary issue was the level of administration and the complexity of the claims procedure which was taking up a lot of man hours.

IHC carried out a market analysis outlining the pros and cons of joining an alternative healthcare scheme and the associated cost savings.  “This gave us the bigger picture and enabled us to make an informed decision quickly. It would have taken me months to collate and analyse all that information,” says Sarah Woodruff.  “Not only have we saved more than 30% on our total healthcare bill this year, IHC also takes care of the administration of the scheme which has given me the time I need to start work on our wider benefits strategy,” explains Sarah Woodruff.

The charity is currently assessing its Occupational Health scheme and from October, staff will have access to an Employee Advisory Programme (EAP).  “Stress and absence can be an issue for us particularly given the emotional nature of the work we do, by offering an EAP we will be able to support staff more effectively,” explains Sarah Woodruff.   

Future plans include looking at how the Anthony Nolan Trust can support working parents and help staff to achieve a better work-life balance.  “60% of our workforce is women, so it’s crucial that we create a flexible and supportive environment and encourage women to come back to work after maternity leave,” says Sarah Woodruff.

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