Employee Wellness Benefits have long been an important arrow in the HR personnel’s quiver to manage employee retention and good-will. After all, getting your employees to perceive about you that your employer is a ‘company that cares’ plays an important part in becoming a preferred employer of choice employer.
’Employee Wellness’ & Workplace Healthcare management
Employee Wellness Programs (EWP) or Employee Health Benefits (EHB) are a form of benefit that many employers provide, focused on healthcare – in one form or another – in addition to the company provided health insurance coverage. The textbook goal of such programs is to help employees stay healthy or – in some cases – helps them improve their health.
Activities within these programs may range from specific purpose oriented programs like, helping employees to stop smoking or to lose weight; to ensuring a better mental wellness quotient across the organization. In addition, organizations may also run standard programs that require statutory compliance, specific to their industry (e.g. Food Services or Manufacturing industries).
The employee health and benefits landscape itself is transforming. From an increased emphasis on comprehensive ‘Employee and/or Family Health Benefits’ programs to wellness programs to conversations around dealing with the pandemic pressure, Indian workplaces are changing.
The important distinction one must draw here is that a company-provided health insurance program (“Group Mediclaim” or “Group Health Insurance”) is just one small part of a good EWP or EHP. Showing your employees you care about their and their family’s health means a lot more than just providing them a standard insurance cover, which you and they know will never pay for all their medical bills.
Post Pandemic reality & the Employer obligation
Post the pandemic, employees are more conscious about their company-provided healthcare coverage and programs, than ever before. In these times, of growing awareness around healthcare, companies can no longer just focus on traditional business metrics. Sales, operations or production metrics have to be measured along with the metric that measures the health & happiness of your employees. The ‘Organizational Health Index’ is a real thing. As is, ensuring better health outcomes for your employees and their families.
India’s working-age population is rising exponentially, with a workforce of nearly 500 million. A projected 62% rise between now and 2050, rising to 800+ million employed Indians by then.
Each one of these employed Indians, is expecting almost entirely, that their Employer will care for theirs and their family’s healthcare. What used to be a fringe benefit offered by some organizations is now the key benefit employees expect.
The Healthcare problem that Indian HR teams needs to solve
59% of employees sought insurance for general consultation; however, only 39% received this in their current group health insurance plan. This means Indian Employees need to have someone to talk to — a Doctor, a Counselor when they need. Dedicated. Furthermore, 73% of female employees wanted maternity care insured, but only 28% of employers provided this as a group insurance plan benefit.
Rising healthcare costs in in India, and limited health insurance coverage means Employees are now spending more and more from their pockets for their family’s healthcare expenses. As these expenses rise, Employees expect their employer to pay for these expenses – leading to requests for loans from employers, demand for frequent salary increases and employee exits to higher paying jobs.
Imagine the pressure on HR teams then, when they realize that their best bet of an “employee health benefit” i.e. the employee health insurance policy, is going to leave their employees exposed to the financial risk of over 60%. I would be a very nervous HR manager or possibly a very worried employee.
India is seeing a massive rise in people belonging to the “salaried class” (800 million by 2050), which will only continue to rise. This means that HR Teams have to now go beyond ‘group health insurance’ and look at a more holistic employee health benefits program.
The Solution: Full Stack – Employee Health Benefits
One part group health insurance, one part annual employee wellness programs, and one part, healthcare credit on tap. This makes for a perfect ‘full stack’ employee health benefits program that any employee would love.
First lets take the group health insurance plan, which should provide a ‘textured’ program for the age and gender profile of your organization. The company should sign up for a policy that provides maximum coverage, for the amount the company can afford. Fortunately, companies of all sizes have options available that can be catered to by large and new-age insurance brokers. Let coverage be your decision driver, not cost reduction. Your employee will appreciate it in their time of need.
Second, establish the concept of the Organizational Health Index, that tracks and provides an aggregate score for your team’s physical and mental wellness. Start with an annual health check programs that is customised for age, gender and type of work (the health check for a thirty year old man, who is a software programmer, cannot be the same as a fifty year old factory floor worker). Institute these health checks that include physical and mental health screenings as an annual event for each employee, that is managed by an outside agency. They will ensure individual privacy and a minimization of HR effort. Let them create the program and manage the execution on ground. Hold them accountable in demonstrating maximum participation and towards providing a summary organization-health-index that you can track over the years. If this health index is getting better, your team’s productivity is getting better. HR teams can now have a specific metric to showcase to senior management.
Finally, sign up for a ‘Healthcare Credit-on-tap’ program (disclosure: the author is a the co-founder of a employee medical finance company). Imagine a solution that ensures that the employee has access to no-cost or low-cost funds to pay for anything that their company-paid health insurance does not cover. Employees know that they have safety net of readily available credit. This security is priceless. The best part of such a solution is that they can access these funds for non-emergency healthcare expenses – which are never covered by any health insurance policy. Imagine when your employee needs to spend on their mother’s cataract operation or their teenage child’s tooth braces, and they can simply draw down, and payback in no-cost EMI of their convenience. Such benefits would only be available to them because they are a part of your organization. Wouldn’t that be an important reason for them to stay with you?
The question Employers and their HR teams, need to be asking themselves is, “How can we ensure 100% coverage of our Employee’s Health Risk — for themselves and their families”. “How can we know about our Employee’s health, so we can help them better.” And “How can we simplify access to healthcare for our employees.” The answers to these questions solve an important issue of employee retention and happiness.
