The growing importance of benefits: How employee attitudes are changing in Asia Pacific

It’s a tough time for employees around the world. Health scares are still making their presence felt with consequences on not only physical but also mental and financial wellbeing; inflation is rising, exacerbating financial stress for many; and travel restrictions, supply chain issues and labour shortages are still disrupting business in many places.

It’s also a time of great upheaval when it comes to labour markets. Many employees are starting to question what matters most to them and look for new career opportunities.

The 2022 Global Benefit Attitudes Survey breaks down the key findings for employers across major markets in Asia Pacific, and explores how they can use their benefit strategies to support their employees through this time of great change.

Key findings

• Compensation — that is, pay and bonus — is key when it comes to attraction. Job security, paid time off, flexible working, and a sense of purpose are also important employee attraction and retention factors.
   
  

  Figure 1. Top attraction and retention factors in Asia Pacific

  Retirement and healthcare benefits also play an increasingly important role in employee decisions to stay or leave. In many markets in the region, the importance of health and retirement benefits as attraction and retention tools has reached a 10-year high.

• Wellbeing is an increasing concern — one in eight employees report issues in all wellbeing dimensions. While physical wellbeing has improved and emotional wellbeing marginally so, many employees are seeing their levels of financial and social wellbeing deteriorate.
   
  

  Figure 2. The state of wellbeing among Asia Pacific employees
• Financial wellbeing in particular has deteriorated. More than four in 10 employees (43%) say they live paycheque to paycheque, a number that has jumped by 13 percentage points since 2019.
   
  

  Figure 3. Financial wellbeing has deteriorated for Asia Pacific employees since 2019
• Retirement, health, and flexible work come up consistently as benefits that employees want their employer to focus on. When asked to rank their top three benefits, retirement ranks highly across all six markets surveyed.
   
  

  Figure 4. Top three benefits Asia Pacific employees want their employers to focus on
• Adding choice and flexibility to the benefits package significantly improves benefits appreciation.
   
  

  Figure 5. Delivering choice improves benefits appreciation

Next steps for employers

• Continue to listen

  In such a fast-changing landscape, it’ll be more important than ever to have your ears to the ground and ensure that you are delivering meaningful benefits that resonate with your workforce.

• Be inclusive

  While overall, the survey found that the majority of employees are satisfied with their benefits, nonetheless some groups are in danger of being left behind. This includes women, LGBT+, ethnic minorities and low-income groups. To bridge this gap, employers can start reviewing benefits from a DE&I perspective with a specific lens for their own market.

• Communicate

  A well-designed, inclusive benefits package will only go so far if it’s not communicated in a way that employees can understand and use. What an effective communication strategy looks like will depend on many factors including company culture, predominant work styles and workforce demographics.

• Use technology

  With remote working being the norm for many organisations today, it’ll be important to investigate whether a technology platform can help cover your organisation’s benefit delivery and administration needs.

• Get innovative

  Flexible work is here to stay. How can benefits support this? Employers are getting innovative, including work from anywhere options, office supply subsidies and generous time off policies. Reshape your benefit strategy to highlight your new flexible work policies and amplify your desired culture around flexible work.

For more details, please complete the form on the right to access the full executive summary.

Contact our experts for more details

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Eva Liu

Head of Strategic Development, Health & Benefits, Asia Pacific

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Royston Tan

Health and Benefits, Asia Pacific, CEEMEA and Latin America

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Emma Longmore

Communication and Engagement Community Leader, International

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Hamish Deery

Head of Sales, Employee Experience, International

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Jeff Howatt

Head of Retirement, Asia

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