23/05/2026
Do you appreciate your staff and more importantly do they know it?
Being a company owner means that you bear the weight of running your company, gaining work or customers, ensuring that staff are paid. All of these are stressful and painstaking tasks which can place a toll on you and your mental health.
Staff merely have the task of doing their job, correctly and hopefully without costing your company any money. However, an important part of their day is being made to feel that their contribution is valuable and appreciated. This is yet another thing that falls on your shoulders. Employers often turn to things like bonuses and incentives to keep staff happy. However, a leading cause of workplace stress is lack of long-term financial security. The salary pays the bills but what happens when you reach retirement and you form part of the 94 per cent of people who cannot afford to retire and you have to find a way to continue working - maybe till the very end?
Pensions or some form of company-provided retirement planning is an important and strategic way to make staff feel valued. Almost a full 60 per cent of employees state that retirement plans provide a good reason to stay with an employer while 75 per cent staff turnover is preventable through the provision of poor or less than adequate benefits.
Many employers in the South African market fall into the micro-market sector and, as such, fall below the threshold in terms of number of employees to qualify for a true group scheme or pension plan. However, this can be overcome by taking out a group retirement annuity where the company pays the contributions and simply deducts all or part of the contributions from the employee. Some may even opt to pay the full contribution - up to a specific limit - thereby further increasing level of goodwill.
A true group scheme or pension comes with certain built-in benefits, such as a funeral benefit. Each insurer has their own set values and limits, but generally they cover the member, their immediate or primary spouse and a certain number of children. Where a group scheme of pension is not possible, a retirement annuity can be done where the contributions are limited on the bottom end by the rules of the house.
If either a group scheme or retirement annuity are something you would like to consider for your company, please contact me and I can sit with you to find the solution which will work best for your specific needs and company size. As an alternative, you could consider some form of medical insurance for your staff where staff have access to a doctor and you benefit from them not taking days off work spent in queues at a clinic. Cheaper than medical aid but with all the benefits.
Call 0828504929 or email [email protected] and lets keep your staff happy.
