Companies operating in the pharmaceutical and IT fields buy the biggest employee benefits packages, which may include life, health insurance and voluntary pensions, says Alin Anastasiu, the representative on the domestic market of Generali Employees Benefits (GEB) Network, the specialised unit of Italy's Generali group.

In Romania, the unit operates as part of Generali Asigurari, a situation that is registered in 90% of the countries the Italian group operates in, while on other markets GEB operates as a separate entity.

Anastasiu says the smallest sums for employee insurance are paid by companies in the domain of production.

Premiums employers pay for employee benefits range between 1 and 2 RON per employee in the case of SMEs buying accident insurance for employees and several hundred thousand euros in the case of multinationals buying more complex packages for their employees.

As a matter of fact, Generali sealed domestically around 20 life insurance policies for top managers with insured sums of above one million euros, with most of these managers being expats.

"An employee benefits package is a very strong employee retention tool. An employee enjoying certain benefits offered by the company will think twice before changing his job. It's clear this market is following an upward trend and I believe that in five years these packages will become a common requirement of people having a job interview," states GEB representative.

Generali currently works with 800 companies on the segment of employee benefits, of which over 400 are SMEs and 200 branches of multinationals.

The gross premiums Generali underwrote from employee benefits rose 45% last year, to 3m euros, and this year the company expects to register a 35% increase. Claims posted an even faster growth pace than premiums, of 60%, reaching 1.7m euros at the end of 2007.