Global employee healthcare demands grow
Bupa Global has found in a new survey that businesses are adapting their approach to international health and wellbeing employee benefits due to an ever expanding and global workforce.
Bupa canvassed 150 HR directors and 1,851 globally mobile employees, finding that a third of HR directors expect their workforces to grow in the next five years, with employees most likely to travel to Europe (80 per cent) and North America (53 per cent), followed by Asia (44 per cent), and the Middle East (35 per cent).
Bupa also found that there has been an increased demand in quality and quantity of health and wellbeing benefits by those who work regularly overseas. More than half of the HR directors questioned reported a rising demand from employees for international private medical insurance (IPMI) over the part five years, causing a third of those interviewed to improve the health benefit offerings to their mobile staff. Of the staff interviewed, a quarter are expecting improved benefits from their employers over the next five years.
“The fact that more and more employees are becoming globally mobile means that IPMI is something of a non-negotiable for businesses,” said Sheldon Kenton, managing director of Bupa Global. “Companies are waking up to the fact that health and wellbeing benefits can be a real differentiator when it comes to recruitment and retention, and can meet this demand by partnering with an insurer which has a network of world class facilities, giving them access to the right care at the right time and place.”
Mental health is becoming more important, with HR managers listing increased stress, depression and anxiety as some of the biggest concerns for employees climbing the career ladder. However, despite the increasing demands on employers to provide adequate healthcare to their employees, there is confusion about the benefits of IPMI. Of those that do not provide IPMI for their employees, 44 per cent said that they were not familiar enough with the options and requirements.