The science and research sector is the most likely to offer private medical insurance (PMI) to its new employees, while the community and social care sector is the least likely, according to research from Broadstone.
The employee benefits consultancy analysed more than 2,000 roles across 21 sectors on job listing website Indeed, to determine which industries were most likely to offer private healthcare as an employee benefit.
With the NHS waiting list now at almost 7.6 million people – a new record – private healthcare has become a more important part of employment packages, as companies seek new employees.
“Private healthcare is becoming more prevalent throughout the UK’s job postings, with the aim of hiring and retaining staff,” Broadstone said.
Broadstone’s research was conducted by scraping Indeed, analysing job advertisements across 21 industries.
Once collated, Broadstone looked at which roles included the mention of ‘private medical insurance’, ‘private healthcare’, and both ‘private medical insurance and private healthcare’ to determine which industries are more likely to offer it as an employee benefit.
Indeed listed 2,737 science and research roles on its site today. That compared to 33,267 roles in the community and social care sector – a difference of more than 30,000 jobs.
The top sector was science and research, where 50% of the roles offered private healthcare benefits.
This was closely followed by travel, attractions and events at 47%, architecture and engineering with 41%, technology with 37% and legal with 36%.
Community and social care positions were at the lower end of the scale, as only 14% of all positions came with private healthcare, over a third (36%) less than that of science and research.
Other sectors in the bottom five included cleaning and grounds maintenance with 19%, safety and uniformed services also 19%, media arts and design at 17% and healthcare at 16%.
Brett Hill, head of health and protection at Broadstone, said: “Not only does offering private medical insurance, or healthcare, benefit businesses by reducing both absenteeism and presenteeism costs, it also demonstrates that an employer is prepared to invest in supporting the health and wellbeing of their employees.
“Employees with fast access to medical care are less likely to miss work due to illness or injury and more likely to be productive.
“This can result in cost savings for employers, as they can avoid the costs of lost productivity and employee turnover.”
