From catered meals and yoga classes at work to free health check-ups and virtual doctor consultations, organisations today are raising the bar when it involves employee benefits. While fancy perks like biweekly chair massages and weekend parties may grab eyeballs, the $64000 game-changers are the healthcare benefits that companies offer their employees.
A Harvard Review Study gave 2,000 US workers an inventory of 17 employee benefits and asked them how heavily they’d weigh the choices when deciding between a high-paying job and a lower-paying job with more perks. Better health, dental, and vision insurance topped the list, with 88 percent of respondents considering it among the foremost important criteria when choosing employment.
Staring at it from the employer perspective, there’s much to be gained from a sturdy employee healthcare benefits program. Especially within the age of technology and data science that help make employee benefits spend smarter and less expensive. Here’s staring at five ways of doing it right:
Keep it Personal
Interesting research by economists at the University of Warwick in England shows that there’s, indeed, a direct correlation between happy employees and increased productivity at work. In other words, it makes perfect business sense for enterprises to speculate within the happiness and wellbeing of their employees.
What ails the typical Indian professional? Stress? Lifestyle diseases? Escalating healthcare costs? a perfect employee healthcare benefits program must address these questions and offer customized solutions to each employee. One size cannot fit all. It’s advisable to curate healthcare packages that cater to the lifestyles, genetic makeup, and health risks of every. One might want a weight management plan, while another may wish counseling and therapy. the great news is that technology, like computer science (AI) and also the Internet of Things (IoT), makes this a straightforward proposition today.
Predict in Time
in line with the National Institute of mental state, a minimum of $193 billion is lost every year because of major mental illnesses among the working population. Untreated depression within the workforce, says a study, costs companies $44 billion in lost productivity. We don’t have the official numbers for India, but they’re guaranteed to be huge. Now imagine, if we were to feature all our lifestyle ailments and chronic health conditions to the mix! That’s plenty of cash gone astray.
The key, with most health problems, is early diagnosis and intervention. It makes good business sense for companies to supply comprehensive employee health benefits that help predict the risks, thereby reducing costs and incidents of illness in employees. It’s time to start out thinking beyond the annual health check-ups. Deep analytics can work wonders for the businesses’ bottom line.
Focus on Prevention
A report published by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations suggests that a well-designed employee wellness program can cause a 25 percent reduction in health plan costs, sick leave, disability pay, and worker’s compensation. Incidentally, 98 percent of employees who have undergone preventive health check-ups found them beneficial in terms of upper productivity at work and improved quality of life.
The most effective strategy permanently health, unarguably, is preventative care. Can a gym at work make sure that employees stay fit? Can nutritious fare within the cafeteria keep food at bay? Can ergonomically-sound workstations prevent poor posture? The answers may differ for various organizations, and also the challenge is to search out what works best for you. the thought of an honest employee healthcare benefits program is to market healthy living – regular exercise, good nutrition, preventive medical aid. All companies want healthy employees, who are more present and productive at work. However, not many realize that it takes conscious efforts to create that happen.
Show that you simply Care
The average person, studies claim, spends 90,000 hours at a beat-up a lifetime. How can companies help employees make that point more worthwhile? While monetary returns are important, recruitment site Glassdoor reports that just about 80 percent of employees say that they’d choose better benefits over a pay raise.
So, an honest employee benefits program has to venture beyond the standard economics of healthcare to a more holistic and humane approach. Employees prefer to know that their employer cares for them. A 24X7 medical consultation service or web-chat interface that answers healthcare queries in real-time can go a protracted way in boosting employee morale and retention. That’s no mean task in today’s competitive job market.
Embrace Technology
These are exciting times when robots (in clinics and operation theatres), 3D printers (for replacement of organs and tissues), and precision medicine (based on the patient’s genetic profile) are revolutionizing healthcare. Indian companies – big and little – must embrace this hi-tech revolution, powered by AI and data science, to supply tailor-made employee healthcare benefits to its diverse workforce.
Today, there are health-tech companies that specialise in bringing together the most effective of healthcare and technology for corporate India. within the future, experts concur, businesses that provide employees the advantages they value will witness increased profitability, competitiveness, moreover as physically and emotionally healthy employees. It’s about time the Indian corporate sector develops a strategic approach to becoming more efficient in their employee benefits spend.
