Employee Benefits: Corporate culture is changing rapidly. There was a time when companies provided only basic health insurance to their employees. But now the situation has changed. Today, the office offers everything from telehealth consultations to gym memberships to mental health support. From the outside it looks like companies are spending money to keep their employees happy, but there is a strong financial plan working behind it. A new report by employee health benefit platform ‘Plum’ has revealed many startling statistics. The report shows that spending on employee health is not charity, but an investment that saves companies long-term costs.

Savings of Rs 480 per employee

Plum’s ‘Standard of Employee Benefits 2026’ report analyzed data from over 15,000 policies covering nearly one million people over four years. It became clear that the old approach to corporate health was no longer working. No longer do companies wait for employees to get sick. Companies that invest in features like telehealth, routine checkups or early diagnosis have seen a 13 percent reduction in claims for chronic and critical diseases. Which has a direct impact on the pockets of companies. As premium on each employee they charge around Rs. 480 are saving. That is, if a company has 1,000 employees, this saving directly amounts to Rs 4,80,000 (around Rs 5 lakh). This is not a one day gain. According to the report, this profit is expected to grow at an annual rate of 6 percent over the next three years.

Competition to provide better facilities

Till four years ago, there were very few beneficial plans that included complete healthcare support with insurance. But now the picture has changed. The report shows that the number of employers offering good healthcare facilities increased from 5 percent to 23 percent. Now almost every fourth company is providing a big safety net to its people. There has been a jump of 53 percent in companies offering insurance of more than 5 lakhs. At the same time, the maternity limit of companies above Rs 75,000 has increased by 155 per cent. The number of companies adding term life insurance increased by 179 percent.

Abhishek Poddar, co-founder and CEO of Plum, says that earlier in India, employee benefits were limited to insurance. Now the best companies are paying attention to healthcare even before claims. This is a big change in the thinking of companies.

Avail the facilities for the first time

With this move by companies, a large section of employees have benefited from preventive health care for the first time. The data shows that 61 percent of the employees used the health checkup benefit. 74 percent took mental health support. 31 percent took advantage of a gym membership for the first time in their lives. This was possible only because his company provided these facilities. 70 percent of those who had repeat health checkups saw significant improvements in their nutrition and heart health. The families of the employees are also making full use of these facilities. Family members account for 37 percent of doctor consultations and 24 percent of OPD claims.

Healthcare costs for companies can go up

Accessing these facilities has now become very easy thanks to technology. According to Plum CTO Saurabh Arora, the next big challenge for companies is to ensure that people take full advantage of the benefits available to them. As the benefits experience improves, employee healthcare will face the ‘Javon’s Paradox’. This means that when people use the facilities more, companies’ health care costs may initially increase.

Currently, less than 40 percent of people in India have health insurance. The premium share is very low compared to markets like the US. Despite this, group health coverage in India is growing at a rate of 23 percent per year. Finally, the report emphasizes that this investment in employees is not a lose-lose deal for companies. When employees are in good health, their productivity increases, they stay with the company and this ultimately saves the company money.