Free benchmark service could save thousands in ACC

Martin Wouters of Manage Company which is helping builders and contractors to save thousands on ACC costs.

Builders and Contractors readers are being offered a free ACC Benchmark service, which could potentially save their businesses thousands in costs.

The new initiative is being offered by Manage Company, which has acted as ACC advisors for around five years.

Managing director Martin Wouters says after working with more than 2000 different employers during this time the company had gathered a host of data that has revealed some significant and surprising differences in ACC costs for relatively similar companies, particularly in the construction sector.

“It became clear there were some real discrepancies with some building firms paying thousands more than others with a similar profile. We decided to present the data we had gathered in a way that allowed businesses to be benchmarked against their peers and the wider industry to allow them to get on top of their levies and ultimately reduce them.”

So far this year Manage Company has saved an average of 38 percent on ACC levies for the clients it has provided the benchmarking service to, which is close to last year’s average of 41 percent savings.

“It’s crazy for people to pay around 40 percent more than they need to.”

He says one factor is the ACC base rate for construction, which based on our data can vary from $2.15 to $3.72 per $100 of payroll depending on the business set up.

“We help companies to take advantage of the legislation and can also provide tips on how to improve their score, and ultimately reducing their ACC costs.”

Manage Company is fully independent and works with a number of builders ranging from self-employed sub contractors to main contractors employing several hundred employees.

The firm specialises in helping firms to manage claims, manage risk and lower liability, predominantly in the ACC space.

“We cover areas such as ACC costs, ACC Claims, ACC Experience Rating, and Health & Safety. With a strong understanding of ACC’s processes we also do a lot of advocacy. This lets our clients get on with their businesses while we take care of what can be quite complex negotiations on their behalf.”

The ACC Benchmark will be updated in November each year once the ACC employer invoices have been sent out.

To register for the service, businesses can access a construction-specific ‘landing page’ on a dedicated website http://workrisk.co.nz/acc-benchmark/builders-contractors-magazine where they can automatically sign up.

“This takes around 10 minutes do, complete an ACC Authority form and answer a brief questionnaire. We do the rest from there. Once we have benchmarked the business, we provide a comprehensive report detailing where the business sits, what it can do to improve its benchmark, and how it can save on ACC levies.”

Manage Company charges a one-off success fee of 40 percent of the savings it creates for the service, with no additional costs to clients.

“We think this is a great initiative, that we plan to extend to other trades and riskier industries such as forestry, transport, and manufacturing,” says Martin