Financial future: Indian employees most worried

Mumbai: Employees in India have reported the highest concern about their financial future, says a survey conducted by MetLife insurance.

The survey, which seeks insights on workplace benefits in India and other countries, finds that a majority of Indians (80 per cent) are extremely concerned about whether they will have enough money to make ends meet, and to pay their bills due to a sudden income loss.

Besides the US, the survey was conducted in the ‘mature’ markets of UK and Australia and the ‘emerging’ markets of India and Mexico. In India, a total of 1,039 employees and 532 employers were interviewed.

Significantly, despite their retirement concerns, only one third of the Indian employees surveyed have taken any steps to determine their retirement income needs. Younger workers (in the age group of 18-30) had the highest level of concerns, but had done the least amount of planning.

The survey also shows that the employers vary in their objectives when it comes to extending employee benefits. While in the UK and the US the objective was to retain and attract talent, in India and Mexico, the aim was to control health and welfare costs and increase worker productivity.

While employees in the US are covered by as many as seven insurance products, those in the other countries are insured by just two.

Interestingly, employers showed reluctance to expand product line or offer guidance and advice on such benefits to their employees.

The low product ownership is caused by limited availability of benefits through the workplace, observes the study.

William J Toppeta, President, MetLife International said that the findings of the survey revealed that there was a lot of untapped potential in the Indian market.

“With a variety of world-class companies operating extensively in India, workers are now more aware of how workplace benefits can help meet their health, protection and retirement needs,” he said.

Capital infusion

On the Indian operations, Toppeta said that MetLife India would see a capital infusion of Rs 119 crore taking it to a total Rs 880 crore.

He said that MetLife was not immediately concerned about breaking even in India. “The key is to grow and have sufficient reach through the agency force and bancassurance channel,” said

Currently, around 10 per cent of MetLife’s business comes from its non-US operations. Toppeta said that he expected this proporion to increase to about 20-30 per cent in the next three to five years.

“We expect India, China and Brazil to show high growth rates,” he said.