With businesses like Apple, Google and Pixar, who house their workers in cutting edge offices, equip them with the best technology and keep them sweet with fridge’s full of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, other companies are keen to follow suite. And this attitude to not just having a high staff retention rate but genuinely bettering the quality of working life for their employees has spread to many other industries, new and old.

These days all companies are under increasing pressure to not only offer competitive wages but also to provide prospective employees with generous benefits packages and an enjoyable working environment. If you work in a sector where competition for good quality staff is high, it is worth investing in an international health insurance plan for your workers, this will help you to gain a competitive edge over other businesses in your sector. Buying a plan like this, which offers access to treatment anywhere in the world, could be attractive not only to your expatriate employees, but also your local staff in your overseas offices. International health cover is normally only accessible to expats, but since some providers can provide cover to locals too, this could give your company that extra benefit that more and more people in the region are looking for from their next employer.

Administering an insurance plan can of course be a time consuming exercise, which in this day and age of digital media, should be as easy as online banking. We know that simple and convenient administration increases management efficiency and effectiveness. That’s why Human Resources Managers should do thorough research, shop around and pick a provider that offers some basic online tools to make it easy to manage the company plan on a day-to-day basis. A good tip is to look for the ability to add and delete members with ease, track claims effectively and get important reports on things like membership number and claims, at the touch of a button, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.

Companies have to distinguish themselves in order to attract the best potential candidates for any job opportunities. As we all know, the best businesses are made that way by hiring the best workers and in order to get the best workers, businesses must often go above and beyond the call of duty. Happy employees make for happy clients which make for happy profits, and providing an international health insurance plan could get your company there.