How to build your company mobility plan: identify your challenges
The implementation of an employee mobility plan meets all your CSR and employee retention challenges.
Business travel and employee mobility are now part of the employer's obligations. So much so that since January 1, 2019, employees' home-work mobility is one of the topics that have become mandatory in the discussions of the Compulsory Annual Negotiations (NAO) of companies. The main objectives are to encourage the use of more sustainable modes of transport and to cover all or part of the mobility costs incurred by employees.
Thus, there are many schemes that allow employees to have all or part of their home-to-work travel costs covered, including public transport passes, soft mobility and fuel costs. These schemes are employee benefits offered by the company to facilitate access to mobility for employees. Just as meal vouchers improve the lunch experience or personal services (or dematerialized CESU) support the work/life balance.
The challenge is therefore to build employee benefits policies that meet the needs of employees but that also fit correctly into your social policy. Faced with the multitude of individual situations that need to be addressed, the key to a successful mobility policy is to ask yourself the issue: what is the number one issue that your company's mobility policy must address?
If employee satisfaction and new legal obligations are two obvious reasons to implement a mobility policy, we will see in this article that such an approach must meet many other challenges: your business challenges.
Did you know that 31% of CO2 emissions are generated by the transport sector in France? The majority of this sector's emissions are generated by employees' commutes to and from work. Many companies are therefore committed to reducing their carbon footprint as a priority. Like Saint-Gobain's "Agir durablement" program, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In this article, Stéphane Cardoso, Human Resources Manager, explains how 30,000 employees have been equipped with the Sustainable Mobility Package.
Reducing carbon emissions is therefore an essential CSR issue. To meet this objective, it is in the interest of organizations to encourage the use of soft mobility for employees' home-work journeys. The Sustainable Mobility Package (FMD) is the most appropriate mechanism. It allows the employer to finance all or part of the public transport season tickets and sustainable mobility expenses (bicycle, carpooling, scooter...), at the same time. The benefit is twofold: improving employee satisfaction by offering them more choice in their commute and effectively decarbonizing commutes. This is a real virtuous circle that ultimately enhances the employer brand and ensures a positive and committed image for the company.
In most cases, employees are reimbursed 50% of the cost of a public transport season ticket. This is an advantage for employees who finance their own bus or metro journeys, particularly in major cities. But it also excludes a number of cases, such as employees who use their private vehicles or those who travel by bicycle. Like the Sustainable Commuting which encourages the use of soft mobility, there are other complementary schemes to cover all employees' mobility needs, for a more inclusive policy:
Covering a portion of employees' travel costs is one thing, but including all the modes of travel they use on a daily basis is even more relevant! Thanks to these schemes, employers can develop an inclusive mobility policy that adapts to all needs.
In 2021, 65% of French employees' fuel budgets will be spent on commuting to and from work. More than ever before, defending employees' purchasing power is therefore also the responsibility of companies. The rise in consumer prices is unprecedented, and employees expect their companies to take concrete action. They have no choice but to review their compensation packages.
Setting up internal mobility schemes helps to protect employees' purchasing power. In fact, benefits such as Sustainable Commuting or fuel reimbursement represent a totally tax-exempt budget for the employee. As a result, the net value received is, in the vast majority of cases, greater than a taxable salary increase.
Concretely:
An employee who benefits from a fuel allowance of €100 per month, will benefit from €100 net of tax to spend in the stores chosen by his employer (a priori, the gas stations). If this same employee had received a salary increase of €100 to support his fuel expenses in a context of inflation, he would in fact only receive €73 on his pay slip, after deduction of tax (in the most common case, of an employee taxed at 30% after a 10% deduction).
On the other hand, a salary increase of 100€ would cost the company 180€ if we take into account the social charges. The difference between what is financed and received on the pay slip is therefore more than €100. Conversely, the implementation of a mobility benefit is also exempt from social charges up to €4500 per year and per employee. It is therefore in the company's interest to start thinking about a mobility benefit policy. In the end, everyone wins.
If your goal is to attract or retain talent, employee benefits are a very powerful way to achieve your goals. With talent shortages and mass resignations, you'll need an attractive salary package to keep your employees. And while this obviously includes an attractive salary level, other features such as flexible employee mobility and employee well-being should not be underestimated.
Of course, the implementation of mobility benefits for employees is only the first step to ensure their retention within the company. In practice, the effectiveness of such measures is above all guaranteed by a policy of communication and promotion of the benefits put in place.
It is then essential to communicate around these advantages:
As you will have understood, the issue here is not only to identify which mobility benefits would be relevant to develop internally, but also to make it a powerful tool for employee loyalty. Your next step is therefore to identify your main challenge before implementing this type of benefit. And if you would like to present your case to one of our social policy and employee benefits experts, do not hesitate to send us your request by clicking here.