September 2, 2015
While an overwhelming majority of employees – 73% – in India expect their employers to offer life cover under group schemes, only 30% employers actually provide the benefit, according to the PNB MetLife Employee Benefits Trend Study 2015. This indicates a mismatch between employee expectations and the benefits actually being offered by employers in India.
Commenting on another finding, Ms Maria Morris, Executive Vice-President of Global Employee Benefits at MetLife said: “From an employee’s perspective, only 39% want a critical illness policy but here, 85% employers are willing to offer it.” People prefer a life insurance over a critical illness policy. One solution to the expectation gap is for employers to offer employees a choice to customise their own personal benefits through flexible or voluntary benefit programmes. The study showed employees are willing to take up additional coverage on health, life and accidents either jointly paid by employers and employees or from employees’ own purses. 61% would buy life insurance without support from employers.
General insurer ICICI Lombard’s Head of Underwriting and Claims, Mr Sanjay Datta, said: “Entities that are able to distribute insurance products to bring down insurance under-penetration are welcome. These new distribution channels are also likely to bring our costs down as they will be working on a digital platform. We are looking at increasing our business in the low-ticket segment.”
According to the study, 70% of Indian employers feel highly challenged to retain employees; and only 51% of employees are satisfied with their current job with 47% saying they will look for another job within the next year. The study reveals a strong correlation between employees who are provided benefits and those employees who feel “a strong sense of loyalty to my employer”. Underscoring the importance of benefits, more than half (55%) of employees who are considering moving jobs said improving their benefits package would be a reason to stay.