Benefits form an integral part of the employee value proposition. They act as a reward lever to help attract, retain and engage employees as a part of the growing enterprise for long. However, benefits cost that already represent a significant percentage of the payroll is continuing to increase. Thus, employers in Asia Pacific are facing a two-sided challenge.
According to Tower Watson’s 2015 Asia Pacific Benefit Trends survey, “Just over four in 10 employers spend over 20% of payroll on benefit schemes, and third of the respondents surveyed say this number continues to increase rapidly.”
However, despite this significant spend, only 16 percent employers say that their benefits are highly valued by employees. As we all know, a “one size fits all” benefits strategy is unlikely to be successful.
In order to be effective, a benefit strategy must be aligned to business objectives, be flexible enough to suit diverse employee needs, and be administered and communicated in a way that employees find simple and engaging.
This survey highlights some key findings as mentioned below. Employers in Asia Pacific are now taking steps in the right direction, to design innovative and flexible benefits which will help them drive business strategy.
Hence, employers in Asia Pacific now understand the importance of having a benefit strategy that is consistent and sustainable in the long run. More than four in 10 employers in China (43%) and Japan (44%) say they do not have a long-term benefit strategy. In contrast, only 10% in Taiwan do not have a benefit cost management strategy in place.
Employees view benefits such as retirement and health as an important reason to work for or stay with their current employer. Poor understanding of benefit cost management has resulted in escalation of benefit costs on a vast majority (76 percent) of employers. Companies increasingly are struggling with benefits governance, juggling multiple systems, vendors and administrative platforms.
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In Indonesia, 57% of employers cited the impact of regulatory changes/changes to statutory benefits as a challenge, reflecting recent changes to statutory healthcare provision, and additional statutory retirement provision expected this year.
Costs are particularly high in Philippines and Indonesia, where 38% and 29% of employers respectively spend upwards of 30% of payroll on benefits.
In the Philippines, high benefit costs are driven by a significant spend on medical benefits (which often extend to parents of employees) as well as retirement benefits (the Philippines still sees relatively high prevalence of defined benefit plans).
The converse is true of Vietnam, where almost three in five (58%) of employers spend less than 20% of payroll on benefits.
In India, the relatively low benefit cost is a reflection that some benefits that are seen as traditional in other countries, in India are viewed as part of payroll, or ”cost to company” (CTC) — for example, medical outpatient allowances or Provident Fund contributions.
To manage benefit costs, some companies plan to introduce a cost sharing strategy. This study suggests that employers are gradually drifting away from the culture of benefits entitlement, and towards encouraging employees to take ownership and control of their benefits.
Employers face a gap between the amount of money they spend on their benefit plans, and the value that employees derive from that spend. And simply spending more does not help add value; in fact it may compound the problem by widening the gap further.
There seems to be a direct link between the value derived from benefits and taking into account employee insights when choosing which benefits to provide.
This sounds logical — employees will naturally value benefits that they themselves have expressed an interest in having. Taking into account employee insights may make the employee feel like a valued stakeholder in the organisation, and that their views are important.
It might also make them feel more engaged in their benefits plan. This also gains significance as employers try to hold employees accountable for their benefits plan.
Also read: Singapore has highest C-level salaries in Asia Pacific
Image credits: towerswatson.com