2023 Benefits Trends Survey, Singapore

shows key findings from the Benefits Trend Survey, Singapore.

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.

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.

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.

Source: WTW Benefits Trends Survey 2023, Singapore
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For more findings from the 2023 Benefits Trends Survey, Singapore, contact WTW today.