Comptoir Group is a group of Lebanese restaurants across the UK, with four different brands, 21 venues, and a team of around 550 people. 2023 saw them embarking on their first ever company health insurance plan – with Equipsme.
HR Manager Gemma Hambley explains: “Coronavirus pushed wellbeing to the forefront for many organisations, and we were no exception. We became much more aware of the health of our teams, and one of the things we identified was that people weren’t seeking medical support very quickly. They were soldiering through with health issues in a way that wasn’t good for them, or for us. As a business we wanted to do more to look after them - and help them look after themselves.”
In a highly competitive job market and a high-turnover industry, Gemma was also looking for something to give them an edge and really make Comptoir Group and its brands Kenza, Yalla Yalla, Shawa and Comptoir Libanais stand out from the crowd, demonstrating the caring culture and living the value of togetherness.
“Health insurance is a very desirable benefit, but it certainly isn’t universal in our industry,” she adds. “With restaurant costs like energy and ingredients going through the roof, benefits budgets are being slashed across the board. We wanted an affordable and flexible option to help us attract talent and retain the people that make our business so special.
Benefits shopping
“The trouble was, we’d never had any kind of health insurance before, we weren’t sure exactly what we were looking for – and we didn’t have a huge amount of HR resource to take care of it. We began benefits shopping by googling around and talking to our normal broker. That’s when we came across Equipsme. I liked the simplicity and flexibility it offered – something the usual and more rigid PMI suspects just couldn’t match.
“Hospitality has a transient workforce made up of people of all ages and health profiles. With Equipsme I can make changes each month, take people off or add them on, and I don’t need to fill out detailed medical information for every person. It’s one, affordable price for all ages with a three-year pre-existing conditions exclusion clause – making it really easy to administrate, to predict costs, and hopefully to scale it up over time.”
As part of a longer, bigger roll out plan, Equipsme is initially being piloted with a smaller group, in order to test how it works in practice. “We’ve started out dipping our toe into the water by introducing Equipsme for general managers, head chefs, and support office staff,” continues Gemma. “As we found through the pandemic, these are critical staff and if they’re down and out with illness or injury the knock-on effect on our operation is huge. They’re also the people with the least flexibility in their schedules, and who struggle the most to get things like GP appointments and physio access.
Backs, knees and elbows
“All those things were priorities for us – and we particularly liked that Equipsme came with physio sessions. Working pretty much anywhere in hospitality ends up being a very physical job with unpredictable shifts. With all the lifting and carrying and being on your feet all day or night you get a lot of bad backs, sore knees and dodgy elbows. Being able to take care of people with those issues and more, quickly – at a time to suit the individual – was very appealing.
“Our plan is to see what the uptake is, how much engagement there is with the variety of services available, take feedback from people and hopefully then roll Equipsme out to the wider workforce.”
Another feature unique to Equipsme that Comptoir Group really rates is the ability for individual staff members to choose to upgrade their cover – or add family members.
Gemma adds: “By buying Equipsme for people at an entry level, we’ve effectively created this route to private medical insurance that people can tailor for themselves and their families. It’s much cheaper than an individual policy would be, and I think people have been really grateful for the addition to their employment package. This is a real back-up when people really need it - and it’s brilliant to have been able to provide that reassurance.
“At the end of the day, protecting people’s health is always going to be a better approach than being left picking up the pieces once the damage is done. It just makes sense. I’d definitely recommend Equipsme to other organisations. It’s such a straightforward benefit, cost efficient and easy to run, both flexible and adaptable, incredibly clear on what’s covered and what’s not – with top quality care for your team.”
