Unum has launched the UK's first fully fledged group risk scheme that can be fully funded by employee contributions alone.
Employers can include any or all of life, critical illness (CI) and income protection (IP) products which can be entirely employer funded, fully employee-funded or a balance anywhere in between.
Incisive Media, parent company of COVER, has become the first company to sign up to the Select package.
The provider is introducing it as part of a drive to target workplaces as a key new audience for protection.
It is twinning this move with the introduction of a UnumOnline quoting system for brokers to use with small schemes of less than 100 employees.
Hosted on the provider's website, it aims to produce a faster and easier quotation process.
Tom Dupuis, head of Unum Select and enrolment, explained it was building on experience from its US parent company.
"We've taken an adopt and adapt approach to our US business," he said.
"We believe with some adaptations we can see the same results here in the UK so that's the model we've taken and applied to this market."
He added that this new method should increase availability and attractiveness to employers and employees.
"Looking at IP we see roughly 1 in 10 employees are participating in that, but in the vast majority of businesses its only the upper echelons who have it. This is about increasing the penetration and number of employees who have access so having that funding flexibility opens up the door.
"And when selling at the workplace you can be more streamlined in terms of risk consideration simply they are at work already," he concluded.
