Analysis: Pandemic remodeled benefit industry in 2020: food tickets, gifts, tourism, medical services and pensions
The pandemic remodeled benefit industry in 2020, so that employees chose digital benefits and solutions offering them additional safety. According to an annual Benefit analysis, an Edenred company, the producer of cards, tickets and solutions for extra-salary benefits, the most wanted benefits in 2020 were food tickets, gifts, tourism, medical services and private pensions.
“Food tickets, gifts ( represented by gift cards to over 100 retailers in various industries), domestic tourism (accessed by means of holiday tickets), medical services (for employees and family members) and private pensions (pillar III) are the main 5 flexible benefits chosen by employees in 2020,” according to the annual Benefit analysis on the extra salary benefit industry in Romania.
Budgets allocated by companies in 2020, for employee benefits, grew slightly. So while in 2019 the monthly gross budget offered to each employee for flexible benefits was about 390 lei, last year it exceeded 400 lei. Employees directed 75% of their budgets to benefits totally pr partially exempted from taxes.
The analysis takes into account data from over 215,000 employees at national level, from industries like call center and BPO, IT and Software, production, retail, services, financial services, etc, which used the flexible benefit solution Benefit at the end of 2020.
In 2020, subscriptions for sport, transport, professional courses recorded the biggest drops in the preference top, as a direct consequence of prevention measures imposed by authorities in Covid 19 pandemic.
The most frequent benefit was the gift card from shops in various industries.
The Special offer category, where Benefit negotiates corporate savings between 5% and 70% for all users, was accessed by 2 out of 3 platform users in 2020. Employees bought services and products at preferential prices using personal money and that from employers' money, thus saving over 10 million lei.
Fix benefits remained the first choice for most employers in 2020. They offered deductible benefits such as food tickets, in the limit of a fod ticket daily / work day (with nominal value of 20.01 lei) gift tickets offered on special occasions ( March 1, June 1, Easter, Christmas), holiday vouchers (granted in the limit of 6 lowest gross salaries/year/employee), cultural tickets ( to be granted monthly with a maximum value of 160 lei/employee or occasionally for 320 lei/event).
Benefit is an Edenred company and is used by over 223,000 employees from 330 companies in industries like: call center & BPO, IT & software, production, retail, services, financial services, etc. They have access to over 4,000 flexible benefits and special offers.
Edenred is a market leader as service and payment platform, with 850,000 corporate customers in 46 countries. The group has 10,000 employees. Edenred offers payment solutions with specific destinations for food (food tickets), auto fleets and mobility (fuel cards, multi-energy solutions, maintenance, road taxes, parking and transport vouchers), stimulus (gift cards an vouchers), corporate payments (virtual payment cards). Edenred is quoted at Euronext Paris stock exchange.