Companies need to move beyond treating employee healthcare as a standard benefit and build recurring, personalised wellbeing programmes that support both physical and emotional health, according to Raluca Binder, Corporate Sales Director, Subscription Division, Regina Maria, who spoke at the People Empowering Business Forum organised by The Diplomat-Bucharest.
“Health should no longer be just another benefit on the list of benefits offered by a company, something we tick off once a year because we have to,” Raluca Binder said.
According to Binder, changing workforce dynamics and demographic challenges are forcing employers to rethink their approach to employee health and wellbeing. Access to doctors and medical services remains essential, she noted, but it should be only the starting point of a broader strategy focused on keeping employees healthy, energised and able to contribute to organisational performance.
“More than ever, the rules of the game have changed. We need to look at the people in our organisations and understand how we can ensure they remain healthy and energised, helping us achieve our performance and business objectives,” she said.
Binder referred to an OECD study which estimates that Romania’s active workforce will decline by approximately 15% by 2040, arguing that, alongside artificial intelligence and digitalisation, companies must pay closer attention to the people who drive their businesses.
Employee expectations are also evolving, particularly among younger generations, who are increasingly concerned about emotional wellbeing alongside physical health. The two dimensions should be addressed together, Binder stressed, as employees do not leave part of themselves outside the workplace.
“We do not come to work in separate pieces. The mind and the body are connected, and we need to look at them together,” she said.
This shift requires employers to develop comprehensive wellbeing programmes tailored to the actual needs of their workforce, rather than relying on occasional initiatives. Binder highlighted the importance of leadership behaviour in embedding health into organisational culture.
“Organisational culture is built, in reality, on the behaviours that leaders in organisations encourage,” she explained.
If wellbeing initiatives take place only during one week of the year, health is unlikely to become an integral part of the company’s culture. By contrast, programmes that are recurring, address multiple dimensions of wellbeing and respond to employees’ real needs can create the foundations for lasting change.
“Our role is to transform this care for people, which we all have as a good intention, into a system that works – not just once a year, but every day, whenever people need it,” Binder said.
She also emphasised the importance of data and personalisation in designing effective corporate healthcare and wellbeing strategies. Regina Maria works with companies to understand workforce needs by analysing portfolio-level data, company reports and demographic profiles, while also taking into account insights and feedback collected by employers through their internal tools.
“All these elements help us understand what this ecosystem should look like. There is no standard solution: it has to be personalised in order to be truly valuable,” Binder concluded.