Q&A with UNIQA Poland on the Polish Employee Benefits Landscape

Insurope Network Member UNIQA Poland is one of the leading providers of employee benefits in the region, offering solutions across Accident, Disability, Life, and Critical Illness, backed by strong local expertise and a deep understanding of employer needs. Insurope recently asked them to discuss what is unique about the local employee benefits market.

Q: Why is Poland considered an attractive business location for multinational companies, and what are its key strengths and challenges?

Poland is an attractive destination for international corporations due to its high-quality human capital offering access to educated specialists, especially in the IT and engineering sectors. Poland also offers economic stability and is seen as a safe place to invest, being a member of the EU and NATO. Moreover, it has been experiencing stable economic growth, and in 2009 it was the only country in the EU to avoid recession. In addition, despite the increase in salaries, Poland still offers favorable employment costs compared to Western Europe, while maintaining high employee efficiency. A very important advantage is also its strategic location in Europe, thanks to which Poland is treated as a hub of business services and a logistics center for the region.

International companies operating in Poland face a number of challenges, which result from both local market specifics and global economic trends. The most important are complex and changing legal and tax regulations, as well as growing salary expectations and high employee turnover.

Q: What’s unique about the Poland employee benefits market?

The group employee insurance market in Poland is characterized by very high popularity, evolution towards health care and strong individualization of offers under group agreements. Thanks to the thematic packages so-called "bricks", insured persons are increasingly able to adjust the scope to the individual needs of the employee, which allows for an increase in the sums insured or additional protection, e.g. in the event of cancer or cardiac diseases.

In addition, very often group life insurance also has a dedicated variant for family members (spouse/partner and adult children), so it is a benefit not only for the employee but also for their loved ones.

Q: Are there any recent regulatory changes impacting the market?

Although no significant regulatory changes have been introduced recently, the market operates under the strict supervision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), which ensures the stability, safety and transparency of the Polish financial market and the protection of the interests of its participants. KNF supervises banks, insurers, pension and investment funds, the stock exchange, payment institutions and loan companies. The KNF issues licenses, controls entities and can impose severe penalties for all kinds of violations.

Q: Where does UNIQA fit into the market?

UNIQA Poland is one of the leading insurance groups in Poland, employing over 2 thousand employees and operating on the market since 1996. We offer comprehensive life insurance, but also non-life and investment insurance. We have 8.1 million individual customers and insure over 220 thousand small, medium and large companies.

Q: How is UNIQA adapting to change in the market?

The Polish market is very dynamic and customers are becoming more and more demanding, which is why UNIQA Poland is constantly improving and modernizing its systems and processes in the area of risk management, payment of benefits, and service in order to ensure the best possible quality allowing for long-term cooperation.

A very important area of development is also the development of cooperation with international partners such as Insurope, which allows us to strengthen our brand on the local market and provide an offer and service at the highest level.

Q: What does all this mean for multinational employers operating locally?

For international employers, it is important to have a local supplier with a strong position in the market who will help to properly match the product to the prevailing circumstances and regulations. Thanks to the cooperation between UNIQA Poland and Insurope, every international employer can be sure that their benefit is tailored to global requirements and meets the expectations of local units, while optimizing costs.