How Can Cost Incurred Be Justified?
To justify the cost incurred in purchasing an employee-centric health insurance policy, employers have to choose a policy and an insurance company that offers value for the amount invested. A health benefit plan that is integrated and focuses on putting your employees in the forefront and maximizing good health outcomes can help in maximizing the Return on investment in the long run.
An Integrated Approach
In 2020, IRDAI made it mandatory for all the employers to cover their employees under a group medical cover after resuming operations after the lockdown. However, investment in GMC can be beneficial for the company. According to a survey by ASSOCHAM, out of all the employees covered under GMC 62% of employees believed that their organization should focus on improving the wellness programs.
As an employer, you can reflect compassion among your employees by providing a healthcare benefit program that takes care of overall wellness that will eventually make your employee more loyal to the organization.
Benefits of Providing Integrated Health Benefits
Here are some of the benefits of providing integrated health benefits to the employees of your organization:
1. Lesser Absenteeism
Providing integrated healthcare benefits promotes a healthy lifestyle among the employee that can reduce absenteeism. According to ASSOCHAM, employers get around Rs 132 back on every rupee spent on employee healthcare benefits as saving on absenteeism costs.
2. Enhancement in Productivity
When you provide integrated healthcare benefits to the employees that help employees to stay fit and healthy makes them more productive. According to Gympass whitepaper, a sense of wellbeing among the employees results in 31% higher productivity and also improves their loyalty by 59%.
3. Reflect Company’s Goodwill
When you provide integrated healthcare benefits to the employees, it reflects the employer’s goodwill and generates a sense of security and importance among the employees. It also helps in creating a positive brand image in the market.
Get Right Returns on Investment
Whether your company has 200 or 2000 employees, it is important that you get the right return on investment made in the group medical cover. Here are some of the things you should do to make sure you get the right returns for the investment.
1. Make Employees Aware of Wellness Program
Don’t think that your employees know everything related to the employee benefits program. Lack of awareness can lead to underutilization of the healthcare benefits. Also, the less aware employees are the lesser they value the contribution of the employer. Hence make sure that your employees are well aware of the kinds of wellness programs being provided in the company. You can ask HRs to send emails, conduct webinars, or even one of one sessions for the ones who want to learn about the benefits in detail or in case of any confusion.
2. Preventive Healthcare
Preventive healthcare is gaining popularity among employers as they are understanding the impact of employees’ health on the overall performance of the company. Offering preventive healthcare can help employees prevent several chronic diseases. The lesser employee falls ill, the lesser claims will be made in the year which will eventually boost the bottom line of the company and the employers will get a discount on the premium in the consecutive year. Since Covid-19 has also increased the adoption of telehealth that can be used as leverage to make sure of timely consultation with doctors which will eventually prevent severe health hazards.
3. Customization
An employer cannot decide the kind of coverage each employee would want. If an employer purchases a group medical cover with a standard coverage then there would be a high chance of mismatch between the kind of coverage an employee requires and the kind of coverage provided under that standard insurance plan. Hence you need to understand the importance of the customization factor where employees can customize the insurance coverage according to their requirements.
4. Flexible Payment Methods
Healthcare payments are predetermined however, the cash flow of your business is not certain. In such a case, purchasing the GMC from an insurer that offers flexible payment methods and arrangements on a monthly, quarterly, or half annually basis can be helpful for the employers.
Conclusion
It is not easy to run a company and manage your employee's requirements at once. However, healthcare benefits play a vital role to keep your employees dedicated and loyal to the company. Since you invest a huge amount in providing the healthcare benefit to the employee, Return on investment becomes important for the company. Hence make sure to have an integrated approach toward employee healthcare benefits that will help you get a better return on investment made in the GMC.
