Twenty-eight percent of companies in Hong Kong are now interested in adopting flexible benefit programs for their employees, according to The Hong Kong Employee Health and Benefits Survey 2016 conducted by
Mercer Marsh Benefits.
In 2015, just 13% of firms surveyed wanted the same.
Flexible benefit programs offer several choices and combinations of contribution requirements, benefits and timeframe to suit individual employee needs.
Eighty-eight percent of those who said yes said they were responding to diverse workforce needs and values. Another 75% said it would help them remain competitive in the marketplace and improve employee engagement.
Other respondents also said they wanted to maximize the value of existing benefits spending, increase employees’ appreciation of their benefits, support a total rewards program, control how much the company contributes to the cost of benefits and help with staff retention and recruitment.
Eva Liu, principal and regional consultant of MMB, said 75% percent of respondents who provided choice to employees in their benefits programs seek employees’ opinions when designing the programs.
“This reflects that companies would like to design programs that are most suitable to employees by considering their needs and preferences,” she said.
“Medical (38%), dental (38%) and wellness programs (38%) were the most popular flexible benefits used by employees. This highlights the importance of medical and dental coverage as well as overall health management to employees.”
Still, companies who offered flexible benefit programs were concerned about cost, return on investment, complexity of administration and resource constraints.
“[They] will need to overcome these challenges to adopt these flexible programs to engage, retain and respond to their employees.”
Of companies who did not currently provide flexible programs for their employees, 28% intended to offer such choices within the next five years, while 55% were uncertain about introducing such plans.
The Hong Kong Survey appeared to address some of the issues raised by the larger Benefits Under the Lens Survey, conducted by the same firm among 654 organisations across 12 different countries.
Among the findings in the broader 2015/2016 poll:
- There was a disconnect in perception. Sixty-five of employers said their benefits supported business goals, but just 12% said employees appreciated them;
- Ninety-six percent collected data about benefits but just 45% used it;
- Eighty-five percent of HR departments surveyed merely relied on market benchmarking when designing their benefit programs; as a result, 89% of departments designed and planned their benefit programs without a defined strategy or road map.
- Half of employers communicated benefit programs to their employees only once a year.
- Thirty-seven percent of employers noted that their workforce was aging but were aware that their benefits were not tailored to these changing needs.
According to MMB, the four pillars of a successful employee benefit strategy are:
- adaptability, sustainability and affordability
- differentiation and innovation
- analytics and metrics
- branding and communication
Noting that HR units were responsible for most of the missing links, MMB recommended that companies fix the disconnect by establishing a clear strategy, over tactics, for employee benefits using available data.
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