LONDON, January 30, 2024 – Almost three-quarters of employers (70%) have a global minimum standard in place for employee benefits, almost double the 36% who said the same in 2019. That’s according to the latest survey of Priorities for Employee Benefits: a global HQ Perspective by WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company.
As benefit priorities change, multinational companies are accelerating their use of global minimum standards for benefits, adopting a global benefits philosophy, making better use of technology and designing benefits that better align with employee wants and needs. The global COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic highlighted the important role benefits play in wellbeing of employees and resilience of the workforce as a whole. Currently, just over half of multinational organisations (54%) have a global benefits philosophy, strategy and guidelines, but 39% are planning or considering putting this in place.
The business relevance of benefits is also evolving and is reflected in an increasing number of organisations who are focusing their benefits strategy externally. In fact, in the next three years, 63% of companies are looking to use employee benefits to signal their company’s purpose and values to customers, investors and external stakeholders, as well as its employee value proposition. Equally, companies increasingly are focused on wellbeing (61%)
This trend builds on the movement WTW has seen over the last five years to use employee benefits to attract and retain key talent and as a means to support employees’ wellbeing. Yet, managing the cost of benefit programs still remains a high priority, as almost two thirds of organisations (68%) say it is a top or high priority over the next two years.
