Meal vouchers, flat rate, imported lunches or canteen. Meals are the most frequently offered employee benefit. It is offered by up to 93 percent of companies. The meal plan flat rate is growing the most. Many companies have also converted paper meal vouchers to electronic ones. It is administratively easier for them, according to a new survey by the Chamber of Commerce.
A total of 445 respondents from the ranks of micro, small and medium-sized companies and the largest employers in the Czech Republic took part in the survey.
According to her, retaining employees (60.6 percent) and striving to maintain a positive company culture (60.6 percent) are the most common reasons why companies provide employee benefits at all. “If I simplify it, it’s about how to keep employees, if you manage to find them,” comments Tomáš Prouza, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and president of the Trade and Tourism Association.
Other reasons why companies give their people benefits include increasing labor productivity (48.6 percent), adjusting labor costs (43 percent) and promoting a healthy lifestyle (30.5 percent). “If you look at Western Europe, a healthy lifestyle is a big topic there. In the Czech Republic, we sometimes pretend that we don’t want to see our growing obesity, but as many trends come from Western Europe, public health will also be one of the big topics ” adds Prouza.
According to companies, company canteens are the best motivation for employees to eat quality and regular meals. “However, their operation involves a number of additional costs, often of an organizational nature and complex bureaucracy. That is why especially smaller companies are more and more often reaching for a meal plan,” says Prouza.
The meal allowance is a tax-advantaged meal allowance paid directly in cash. In the Czech Republic, employers can offer it from 2021.
The allowance for meals holds the primacy among the offered employee benefits. Its popularity can play a significant role in the period of rising prices of food and lunches. However, according to the latest survey by Sodexo Benefits, the growth of lunch prices has stopped since December 2022. For the entire first quarter of this year, they only grew by pennies. In March, the average price of lunch in the Czech Republic reached 181.90 crowns.
The second most common benefit right after meals is the possibility of a business phone and laptop. According to Prouza, the demand for this benefit increased especially during the pandemic, when parents in particular needed more computers to combine their children’s online education with their work. 74 percent of companies offer this benefit. “The popularity of this benefit not only on the part of employers can be attributed primarily to the fact that the telephone and laptop are often also used for the performance of the profession,” adds Prouza.
The third most common benefit is a pension or private life insurance contribution, which is provided by 65 percent of companies. This is followed by professional education and professional development. “Benefits related to education and expanding expertise are gaining importance in the light of the current trend of lifelong learning and have the potential to have a positive effect on the labor market and the economy as a whole,” comments Prouza.
