Less than half of employers in Asia Pacific believe their benefits package is tailored to meet the specific needs of their workforce, according to the latest 2019/2020 benefit trends survey by Willis Towers Watson (WTW). At the same time, only a minority of employers in Asia Pacific and globally think their benefits are truly effective.
To change this status quo and better meet the needs of employees, employers in the region are working towards transforming their overall corporate benefit strategy.
This year’s survey showed that the trend of enhancing benefits to include non-core concepts such as well-being is going further as employers embrace themes such as inclusion and diversity, corporate social responsibility as well as flexible work policies.
Employers combat challenges to address needs
Employers in the region are struggling with a multitude of challenges such as the rising cost of employee benefits and dealing with a diverse and multi-generational workforce.
According to the survey, over three quarters of employers in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines are worried about rising benefit costs. At the same time, almost two thirds of employers in China and Singapore said the needs of a multi-generational workforce are a challenge.
Almost half of employers in Asia are also concerned about the impact of regulatory changes. Additionally, there are operational challenges around a lack of data (40%) and a lack of appropriate technology (37%) that may loom large in the future as workplaces shift towards automation and the increasing use of big data.
In the APAC region, nearly 39% of employers find communicating benefits choice a challenge. This number is lower in Asia Pacific than in other regions whereby over half of employers in North America noted this as a challenge, for instance. Potentially, fewer employers could be offering choice in Asia signalling an opportunity for Asia employers to catch up with their global peers.
The firm had conducted the 2019/2020 benefit trends survey during May and June 2019 among more than 4,300 companies from 88 countries. This included gathering responses from 1,188 employers reflecting 2.6m employees across 16 markets in Asia Pacific. M