It is often said that employees are an organisation’s most valuable assets, because as Richard Branson said, if you take care of them, they will take care of your business. Employers need to think about attracting, retaining and incentivising their employees to get the best out of them. To unpack employee benefits, I sit down with Relebohile Seshemane Kalake, Head of Employee Benefits at Alliance Insurance Company.
TKay: For people who do not know you, please tell us who you are.
‘M’e Relebohile: I am Relebohile Seshemane Kalake, the Head of Employee Benefits at Alliance Insurance Company. I am a professional, young mother of two who enjoys travelling.
TKay: How would you describe your relationship with your money?
‘M’e Relebohile: I have an evolving relationship with money. I started off as a young student who struggled a lot with my finances when I first had the opportunity to handle and manage my own money. With growth, understanding and learning I started to improve. Having studied finance at university and managing clients’ money in my role at work, I now understand the importance of managing your money and how markets work, my relationship with my money is now good.
TKay: What are employee benefits for people who do not know?
‘M’e Relebohile: At Alliance Insurance Employee Benefits (EB), we provide corporate benefits to employees on behalf of their employers. An employer for example comes in and requests benefits such as pension, life cover and disability benefits for their employees. The EB team does the administration, ensure that the member details are captured correctly and ensure that when a member goes on retirement, everything is in place and done correctly. We also do investments on behalf of the employee and ensure that the returns are allocated correctly.
TKay: Are risk solutions part of the employee benefits?
‘M’e Relebohile: Yes, we offer risk benefits that include the likes of group life assurance (GLA), which covers a group of employees and disability benefits.
TKay: Does contributing towards retirement benefit employees?
‘M’e Relebohile: The goal of a pension or provident fund or whatever type of fund is meant to assist employees save today for when they are no longer in employment when they reach retirement age. The goal is to provide them with income so they can take care of themselves post-employment.
TKay: Is one ever too young to start saving for retirement?
‘M’e Relebohile: The perception is that ‘retirement conversations’ make one feel very old. I think the best time to start saving for retirement is when you are young, at age 25 for example before your income is committed. The older you grow, you start having kids, taking loans to buy a house or car then your income starts getting smaller. It is best to start early so that by the time the commitments increase, you have already built a reserve. This is one of the lessons we are working hard to teach members of retirement funds is that it is important to save extra while you can.
In next week’s article, I will discuss how members of retirement funds can benefit from legal insurance provided by Alliance. For more information on employee benefits visit Alliance at www.alliance.co.ls or speak to your broker. Likhomo!
