Employee benefits remain crucial in talent attraction and retention
Key findings in Singapore
Conflicting ambitions
- Desire to improve benefits to attract and retain talent
- Face cost challenges due to a weaker business environment and concerns about workforce performance
Mismatched priorities
Employees have greater emphasis on
- Short- and long-term financial security
- Benefits decisions making
- Support on families’ needs
Future direction
- Almost all employers desire to at least be ‘at market’ for their broader portfolio of benefits
- An increasing number of employers are targeting an ‘above market’ position
Conflicting ambitions
Rising costs impacting organization's benefits budget despite a desire to improve benefits to deal with competition for talent identified as a number one issue influencing benefits strategy.
Key factors influencing benefits strategy
| Key factor | 2021 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Focus on inclusion and diversity | Competition for talent |
| #2 | Competition for talent | Rising costs |
| #3 | Flexible work arrangements | Focus on inclusion and diversity |
| #4 | Rising costs | Flexible work arrangements |
Reasons for rising costs
- 59% Persistence of higher inflation
- 52% Weakening economy and business environment
Mismatched priorities
Employers are not delivering the benefits that employees desire. This misalignment boils down to differences in their objectives around benefits: Employers tend to prioritise business resilience and thus focus on core benefits that support universal, unchanging needs; whilst employees typically see benefits as a solution in addressing the most pressing needs in their day-to-day activities.
Employer and employee benefits priorities
| Employee | Employer | |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible work arrangements | 43% | 35% |
| Retirement plan / long term finances | 37% | 3% |
| Support for employees’ benefits decision | 32% | 5% |
| Financial wellbeing / short-term finances | 21% | 5% |
Future direction
Companies should always consider taking a holistic approach to improve their employees’ benefits strategies, with a focus on improving wellbeing, providing more choices and flexibility, ensuring the affordability of benefits, and meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce. In our findings, employers have a desire to enhance benefits across the portfolio. Here are some of the actions taken.
- 51% of employers are looking at financing benefits through vendor solutions.
- 33% of employers are looking to enhance employee experience through digital platforms.
- 75% of employers plan to analyse claims and usage data to understand cost drivers, as well as to forecast future benefits costs and risks.
About the survey: 111 employers with an employee size of 0.2million participated in the 2023 Benefits Trends Survey, Singapore.
