Office notebook. At the time of the Mandatory Annual Negotiations (NAO) on remuneration, The perspective of HR managers tends to change. If the HR department does not have sufficient budget to decide on significant salary increases because the company is in difficulty, the group’s strategy has other priorities or for some other reason, the first thing that is explored is the possibility of doing the following: “Other employee benefits”, like mutual insurance. However, do employees consider their mutual insurance as part of their compensation?
The 15the The Barometer of Foresight, published on Tuesday, December 19, provides some answers to this topic. It was carried out by IFOP for the Technical Center for Provident Institutions (CTIP) with a thousand employees in September and the same number of employers in October.
Mutual insurance is certainly perceived as an advantage by employees. According to this study, 87% of respondents believe that it is important to develop health prevention or welfare measures (disability, dependency, death) in their company. “The French see mutual insurance as a real, tangible benefit, in response to the priority issue of health. In our qualitative surveys, in which purchasing power plays a major role, health spending particularly stands out.”, notes Frédéric Dabi, Director General of IFOP. Thanks to their mutual insurance, more than one in two employees (54%) do not pay most healthcare costs in advance.
The salary is the salary
The financial resource represented by these systems goes beyond the employee. The CTIP study shows that 43% of employees surveyed use supplementary company health insurance (mutual) to cover another person (spouse, beneficiary).
Employers, on the other hand, see mutual insurance as an attractive factor. They have often increased the amount of guarantees offered. For example, 46% of managers surveyed say they have company-negotiated coverage, compared to 41% two years earlier. And only 44% (compared to 47% in 2021) are satisfied with the minimum level provided for by law. “Employers view mutual insurance as an element of business improvement”comments Mr. Dabi.
But employees do not equate health care or welfare measures with pay. According to the CTIP study, only 16% of those surveyed believe that pension guarantees exist “A plus paid for by the company”. Two-thirds (64%) believe this is primarily the case “Protection for yourself and your loved ones”. It is for “improve health” They answer that it is important to develop foresight in companies. The same applies to additional health insurance. “It seems insurmountable to make it clear to employees that mutual insurance is a tangible part of compensation.”, analyzes Mr. Dabi. The salary is the salary.
