Office notebook. At the time of the mandatory annual negotiation (NAO) on remuneration, the perspective of HR managers tends to shift. When human resources departments do not have sufficient budget to decide on a significant salary increase, either because the company is in trouble, because the group’s strategy dictates other priorities, or for any other reason, the first route studied is the “other employee benefits”as mutual insurance. But do employees consider mutual insurance as part of their compensation?
15E The Foresight Barometer, published on Tuesday 19 December, provides some answers on this topic. In September, it was carried out by the IFOP for the Technical Center of Intermediary Institutions (CTIP) with a thousand employees and in October with the same number of employers.
Mutual insurance is well perceived by employees as an advantage. According to this study, 87% of respondents believe that it is important to develop health prevention or social measures (disability, addiction, death) in their society. “The French perceive mutual insurance as a real, tangible benefit, an answer to the priority issue of health. In our qualitative surveys, where purchasing power is the main issue, healthcare spending stands out significantly.”, says Frédéric Dabi, Director General of IFOP. Thanks to mutual insurance, more than one in two employees (54%) do not pay the majority of medical expenses in advance.
A salary is a salary
The financial resources represented by these systems go beyond employees. The CTIP study shows that 43% of employees surveyed use company supplemental health insurance (mutual) to cover another person (spouse, beneficiary).
Employers find mutual insurance an attractive factor. They have often increased the levels of warranties offered. So 46% of executives surveyed said they had the level of coverage the company negotiated, compared to 41% two years ago. And only 44% (compared to 47% in 2021) are satisfied with the minimum level set by law. “Employers see mutual insurance as an element of company improvement”comments Mr. Dabi.
However, employees do not equate health prevention or social measures with remuneration. According to the CTIP study, only 16% of respondents consider the pension guarantee to be a pension “plus paid by company”. Two-thirds (64%) believe it is primarily “protection for yourself and your loved ones”. It’s for “improve health” that it is important to develop foresight in companies, they answer. The same applies to supplementary health insurance. “Getting employees through this mutual insurance is a tangible element of compensation seems insurmountable”, analyzed by Mr. Dabi. A salary is a salary.
