Feature

The growing significance of employee health benefits

Employer-sponsored health benefits are a key influence in the recruitment and retention of employees, writes Nivedan Prakash

Every organization today has healthcare policies for its employees, as most of them want to ensure that their employees stay not only happy, but also healthy. It is also because most organizations believe that their employees are the most important asset for them and that they have to be nurtured well.

Having realized this, we could see these companies having a comprehensive healthcare policy that has a wide coverage for the employees as well as their family members. And while rolling out a healthcare policy, the organization mainly covers various health aspects, health insurance coverage, affordability, and scope of benefits. Besides, the companies are creating an environment that makes employees feel excited to work everyday.

The basic philosophy behind these efforts is that the organizations believe that investing in employees’ health would assure a return of investment, which might not be measurable on an immediate basis but offers a high rate of return in the long-term.

Ashok Srinivasan, VP-Operations Support, Expertus, said, “Apart from all the other benefits given to employees, health has become a very important aspect now-a-days. Hence, it is necessary to have a healthcare policy for the employees and their families. In our organization, we have a free healthcare card that can be used for hospitalization. Also, for female employees and spouse of male employees, we have maternity policy.”

Adding further, Mamta Wasan, VP–HR and Training, Fidelity National Information Services, stated that they have an accident and total comprehensive healthcare policy, which covers employees and their families, including dependent parents.

Moreover, giving the perspective from a different industry, Jaya Alexander, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, highlighted that the healthcare policy of the company is to provide some kind of health coverage to all employees working for the company, irrespective of their status as permanent, temporary or trainee. Working in the financial services industry has its own problems, mainly physical, which are stress induced issues related to sedentary work and a result of wrong eating habits. Therefore, there is a conscious effort to provide best healthcare services to our employees.

Different healthcare benefits

As part of the healthcare policy, organizations pass on various benefits to their employees. It includes health insurances, mental health counseling, and physical health check-up camps, amongst others.

Here, we will look at the different healthcare benefits that are being passed on by organizations to their employees. To begin with, ADP India provides a lot of healthcare benefits to its associates, including medical insurance of up to Rs 4 lakhs for associates and their family members that also covers pre-existing ailments; Annual Master Health checkup for associates and family members who are above 35 years; regular health awareness programs on topics like cancer, diabetes, pandemic diseases like recent swine flu, etc., and special awareness sessions for women associates.

Tim Huiting, VP-HR for Convergys (Asia), said, “We provide health insurance, various life insurance policies, temporary/permanent disablement cover and weekly benefits in lieu of leaves taken as the result of an accident. We conduct employee wellness programs to educate and give our employees an opportunity for mental health counseling. We also organize physical health check-up camps, including dental check-ups and vision and eye checks on a regular basis across all our sites.”

At Intelenet, there is doctor-on call facility for all locations as well as tie-ups with nearby hospitals and clinics for emergencies. For ensuring the mental and emotional health of its employees, the company has engaged an on-site counseling service, called Drishti. I-Counsel is another initiative by Intelenet that gives employees the opportunity to come out of their nagging stress and enhance their lives.

“At Patni, we have tied up with Apollo Hospitals for a personalized health survey of employees by assessing them on fitness, nutrition, stress, cardiac risk. Then we have on-call doctor and nutritionist, e-learning sessions on ergonomics and healthy lifestyle, free check-up camps, and counseling programs for employees to help them cope with stressful situations at work or on the personal front,” added Rajesh Padmanabhan, Executive VP and Global Head–HR, Patni.

Nitya Nivali, HR Head, Progress Software India, pointed out that they have hospitalization insurance (mediclaim) and personal accident insurance, apart from life insurance. “We also have health camps by reputed hospitals organized in our premises at times, wherein we organize free health check-ups for the workforce,” added Nivali.

The various healthcare benefits extended by Steria to the employees include health screening of employees above 40 years, group personal accident insurance cover, employee group mediclaim insurance policy cover, group term-life insurance, EDLI that is part of statutory obligation, doctor’s visit, general health awareness, and Health Week, wherein the company conducts regular health cardiac, dental and eye camps.

ThoughtWorks India provides life insurance and medical insurance in addition to medical expense reimbursements up to Rs 15,000 per annum as part of the gross salary to all its employees.

“We provide in-depth healthcare coverage to employees and their dependents. This includes medical insurance, a corporate healthcare tie up with Apollo Hospital, maternity leave and provision of extending the maternity leave, counseling services,” said Sudheesh Venkatesh, HR Head, Tesco HSC.

Lastly, in addition to covering every employee under mediclaim as well as personal accident cover, TeamLease works with reputed medical institutes and specialists to carry out regular advisory campaigns to increase employee awareness. Some of the recent camps held covered heart diseases camp conducted by Manipal Hospital, AIDS awareness and gynecological advice for women employees.

Focus on health insurance

Health insurance plan is considered to be an integral part of a healthcare policy, which is seen as an added benefit given to all employees in addition to the package that they are offered, irrespective of the position that they hold. And the premium for the same is borne by the company.

“At ADP, the healthcare insurance of up to Rs 4 lakhs for associates and their family members is provided to all. And this insurance is not a part of their salary package. ADP provides healthcare insurance to all the associates as a standard benefit. The premium is borne completely by the company and it is not a part of their salary package,” added Satyanarayana Vinjamoori, Head-HR, ADP India.

Shantanu Banerjee, Director HR, Steria India and Global Program Director of Steria Academy, pointed out that health insurance plans are primarily an employee’s choice. “However, we do keep a mandatory requirement at the time of joining the organization that the employee must take a self-cover. It is offered to employees at subsidized cost wherein Steria shares 50% of the total premium towards insurance of the employee and his dependents. The remaining 50% is borne by the employee.” But in case of Group Personal Accident and Group Term Life Insurance, Steria bears the full premium (100%) towards coverage under the policy.

Passing on the buck

It is learnt that employer- sponsored health benefits are a vital part of human resources management program—not only because it comprises a large and growing portion of an employee’s total compensation package, but also because it helps the employer to build trust amongst employees.

In most of the organizations, the health insurance schemes, wellness camps, etc., are in addition to employees’ salary package. There the employees attribute high value to their health-related activities and view them as part of their total compensation.

Manuel D’Souza, Chief Human Resource Officer, Intelenet Global Services, asserted that a healthcare policy doesn’t only encompass a growing portion of an employee’s total compensation package, but it also means that they take each and every important step to ensure that their employees stay healthy and fit. “We have a Mediclaim policy which covers all its employees and the premium for the same is borne by the company,” added D’Souza.

With the increased levels of stress in the work environment and relatively sedentary lifestyles of employees, most progressive organizations recognize the need to cover every employee with some form of medical and personal accident coverage. Medical insurance provides them with the peace of mind in ensuring that all costs towards the delivery is met.

Healthy employees are productive and are a positive influence on the organization. The system of employer-sponsored health insurance for the employees and their families takes care of their health related worries and provides peace of mind to them, which eventually results in an effective and productive workforce. It has been found that healthcare benefits are a key influence in the recruitment and retention of employees.

In keeping with today’s work environment, it has become imperative for companies to address employees’ health issues. Employer-sponsored health benefits imply companies paying premium on behalf of employees for their healthcare policies. This is a growing trend and has become increasingly popular as a way for employers to motivate and retain employees.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com