Improving benefits to meet the needs of all employees
According to employees, personalisation and wellbeing are at the top of the list of things employers could do to improve their benefits.
Our research indicates that employers are acutely aware of this demand. 50% of HR and Reward professionals report that employees are demanding more flexibility and personalisation in benefits compared to 12 months ago, and 48% claim that employee expectations for wellbeing support have increased.
The research reinforces the trends that we are seeing in the global market. Employees in Asia are far more focused on getting fundamental protections and insurances in place, while those in the UK and the US are more likely to be looking for greater flexibility and choice in their benefits package.
For example, life insurance in the UK and the US is firmly established as a core employee benefit (often with an option to include a spouse or partner), while in India and Singapore this type of benefit is still relatively rare.
The US still leads the world in terms of wellbeing provision, whether that’s resource-based support or Employee Assistance Programme services. These types of benefits are less prevalent in India and Singapore, but demand will undoubtedly start to grow once employees have their core protections in place.
Fundamentally, employees all over the world want to be, and feel, looked after by their employer, but what this means and looks like varies across every country. It’s not just that employee needs are different – it’s also the size and sophistication of the benefits industry in each country. The UK has a very rich and complex benefits market, but this doesn’t mean there is a deeper need for benefits amongst employees; it’s just a manifestation of how the market has evolved.
"For employers, a one-size-fits-all approach evidently does not work when devising a global benefits programme. Multinational organisations need a broad level strategy that can translate into local requirements. That could be a top-level strategy to ensure all employees are protected for later life and retirement, or to protect their health and provide good medical care. That global strategy needs to be translated into a plan for each country.
For companies that are regionally headquartered in the UK, it’s important to recognise that the UK is unique when it comes to employee benefits. Employers can’t just replicate what they are doing in the UK everywhere else in the world. Other countries don’t have the range and choice of benefits that exist in the UK, nor do they have the same tax breaks for certain benefits. The starting point for employers to develop a holistic and consistent global benefits programme needs to be a full audit to understand what benefits they are offering in each market and to benchmark how competitive these benefits are at a local level. They then need to identify gaps and launch new benefits and make adjustments to existing benefits to ensure all bases are covered.”
Paul Andrews Global Benefits Consulting Director, Benefex
