La pratique de fidélisation des employés, en Belgique, via l'assurance groupe: est-elle pertinente et efficace?

Abstract

"Employee turnover is recognised as costly". The consequences of an employee’s departure result in a loss for the employer in terms of training and productivity. That is, employers do not want to lose their workers. Previous studies have shown that employee benefits plans can be suitable and relevant to deal with retention and companies’ attractiveness. Thanks to them, an employer can differentiate himself from another employer. Group insurances are mainly used to provide an extra-legal pension capital. In Belgium, many employers offer this kind of retirement plan. Although some authors have studied the consequences of implementing different employee benefits plans, in Belgium, there is a lack of interest in research studies regarding the impact of a group insurance on employee retention in companies. The aim of this master thesis is to develop a specific thought on the group insurance offered, in Belgium, by employers to their employees and to establish if there is a causal link between this specific employee benefit and employee loyalty. This thesis provides a current assessment of the situation of employee retention in Belgium through a group insurance. In this study, we try to answer our research question: “the practice of employee retention in Belgium through the group insurance: is it relevant and efficient?”. The first part which is theoretical helps to acquire a better understanding of the group insurance. A literature review is carried out to take meaning of important factors in retention and loyalty of employees. The second part concerns the methodology used which is the qualitative research through semi-structured interviews. To answer the main research question, we have formulated five sub-questions to have specific items to discuss during the interviews. They describe the employees’ knowledge about group insurances; they explain how this cash alternative is perceived by employees; they discuss the motivations of employers to implement a group insurance; they search of an asymmetry (if any) between the employees’ perception of this product and the offer made by employers as well as whether a group insurance is a retention factor in companies. Our contribution is to raise awareness among employers and employees as well as any interested person about the relevance (or not) and the possibilities (or not) of staff retention via the use of the group insurance. The findings show that there is a weakness in the employees’ knowledge about group insurances including tax benefits and guarantees except the retirement capital. Employers use them mainly due to tax efficiency and epidemic trend to attract people. A group insurance taken individually is not enough to retain employees, insofar factors that make candidates stay within 'their' company are not only financial ones. We use the metaphor of a candidate, which is the 'three-legged stool'. There must be a balance between the "social" factor, the "salary package" and the "work task". A group insurance is an element that can be part of the employee's salary package. The salary package can be a criterion on which employees decide according to all their own important criteria (to come, to stay or to leave a company). A qualified opinion seems us more prudent to answer the research question, we can say that in our sample (and only within), a group insurance can sometimes play a "secondary" and "indirect" role in retention. Even if a group insurance is not seen as a key factor in retention, as it is explained in this master thesis, if employers want to raise the group insurance influence, communication by employers (on tax benefits for employees and other guarantees (if any)) as required by some employees and a revision of the group insurance contribution amount can be key factors in the employees’ understanding and appreciation and thus can lead to a stronger impact.