Employee benefits for 2022: How digitalisation and personalisation make better businesses

Over the last year, employees have increasingly turned to their employers for support and understanding. Employees began paying more attention to what their employers have to offer—the employee value proposition—and basing their company trust on their employers’ benefits decisions. 

“Employee expectations of bosses and companies have hiked, because of pent-up job switches that did not happen and pandemic-driven epiphanies of what truly matters to them,” wrote Dr. Wu Pei Chuan of the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School in a Channel News Asia (CNA) commentary.

Take Apple, for example. When CEO Tim Cook announced that everyone must begin working in the office three times a week after months of fully remote work, Apple employees wrote an open letter complaining about the change.

“Apple’s remote/location-flexible work policy, and the communication around it, have already forced some of our colleagues to quit,” the letter read. “Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple.” 

No company wants their top talent to leave, and most want to empower their employees to do their best work. Today, more and more organisations are recognising their emerging role as a support system during turbulent times.

However, providing that support is easier said than done. According to a 2020 Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) study, two out of three employers say that maintaining employee morale has been a challenge. Especially in a remote environment, it’s doubly difficult to keep employees happy and engaged. 

Many have since re-evaluated and improved their benefits packages to better support their employees. But the challenges they face have also evolved. They must now figure out what benefits provide meaningful impact, and make sure these can be utilised even in a remote, hybrid, or flexible environment. 

The role of employee benefits in a post-Covid world 

Employee benefits have always been central to human resources employee attraction and retention strategies. But now, employee benefits are playing a larger role in maintaining a more productive, inclusive, and more engaged workforce. 

One big reason for this shift is the pandemic’s impact on employee morale. The fear of getting sick, losing their job, and experiencing prolonged isolation in unfavourable home environments has heightened feelings of anxiety among Singaporeans. 

For many companies, benefits packages have been the primary means of supporting employees. In a survey conducted by Care.com, 57% of senior leaders said they are assigning higher priority to care benefits to better support their employees in both work and life. 

This represents a dramatic shift in the way organisations treat employees. In the past, employers felt they had no business butting into their employees’ health and well-being. Now, companies feel a stronger sense of accountability over their employees’ state of health, both physical and mental. So while the crisis is softening into an endemic in Singapore, it has created lasting changes in the way Singaporeans view and treat employee wellness. 

“People spend most of their time working, and so as an employer we have a responsibility for people to be in their best condition, perform, and feel well,” said Karine Scelles, Otis Elevator Company’s executive HR director of Asia-Pacific, speaking in an interview with CNA. 

Goodbye one-size-fits-all benefits packages

Compensation and benefits packages are a staple of any company’s offerings. More than just nice add-ons, they’re crucial in engaging the workforce and creating an attractive employer brand. Companies that offer these packages are demonstrating their values—that they see employees as more than just cogs in a corporate machine, but living, breathing individuals who live for more than just a monthly salary. 

A basic benefits package typically includes: 

• Life insurance
• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Maternity insurance
• Health & Wellness
• Travel insurance
• Retirement benefits
• Maternity leave
• Paternity leave

These benefits cover general aspects of employee wellbeing; for a long time, this level of coverage was enough for most employees. However, with Covid-19 ushering in the “new normal,” times have changed. Employee expectations have shifted dramatically. 

This shift signals the end of one-size-fits-all benefits packages. Rather than lumping employee wants and needs into one category, organisations are now more cognisant of the nuances of the individual experience.

A company’s workforce is made up of diverse groups of people—working parents, dual jobbers, Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z-ers, and people from different cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life. Naturally, these people have unique wants and needs from their jobs.

This is prompting organisations to keenly re-evaluate their current benefits packages. Companies like Singtel and DBS have upped the frequency of sentiment polls and surveys to understand how their employees can be better supported. 

This level of probing is necessary in remote or hybrid environments where it’s difficult to gauge how an employee might be feeling. It’s also necessary if employers want to create benefits packages that truly help their employees. 

According to the Care.com survey, most leaders are expanding at least one employee benefit, prioritising the ones focused on care, flexibility, and mental health; and deprioritising at least one type of employee benefit, such as on-site child-care, paid vacation days, commuter benefits, tuition reimbursement, and food or meals. 

Some of the top benefits during this time include: 

Inclusive healthcare plans, including telemedicine and mental health support

The crisis has unsurprisingly put the spotlight on health—but not just physical health; mental health, too. 

The fear of affliction, prolonged isolation, and the blurring boundaries between work and personal life are wreaking havoc on Singaporeans’ mental health. These factors, combined with the stress and pressure of work, are leading more Singaporeans to quit their jobs. 

With Singapore taking second place in Kisi 2021 Work-Life Balance Index’s “most overworked city in the world” category, companies should work harder to mitigate stress, prevent employee burnout, and take care of their employees’ physical and mental wellbeing before it’s too late. 

Employers have responded by expanding their healthcare insurance packages and offering telecare services so employees can seek help remotely. Companies are also including mental healthcare into these packages, offering counselling services, helplines, and stipends to support anxious individuals during this time. And companies that were already offering some type of mental health support prior to 2020 have since expanded their offerings.

Flexibility, more paid leaves, and break-time benefits

Flexibility has been a growing expectation for many employees, particularly from the millennial demographic and younger. A 2019 IWG survey found that 83% of employees would choose a job that offered flexible work options over one that didn’t, and that 54% of respondents felt that having a choice of work location was more important than working for a prestigious company. 

Now, the demand for flexibility is even stronger, and it’s related to the growing importance of work-life balance. As employees of all demographics literally juggled between work and personal lives, changing diapers or making quick grocery dashes in between video calls, the flexibility to work from home and control their hours became much more important. So much so that people are leaving their companies for it, like with Apple.

But more than just having more control over time, sometimes people just need a break. Something as simple as a paid leave of absence can greatly improve morale. This is why Singapore’s OCBC Bank started giving employees the option to carry forward additional days of their annual leave to the next year, or otherwise cash out up to five days of annual leave for flexible credits. These flexible credits can be used to reimburse medical expenses, insurance premiums, and wellness or personal expenses. 

Work from home benefits, stipends and allowances

Most companies plan on maintaining remote work arrangements in the foreseeable future. And while that’s a boon for most employees, others struggle with productivity in their home environments. 

We’ve heard it all before—barking dogs, crying babies, and the mind-numbing thuds of construction in the background. Some teammates need to take a pause from their weekly check-ins to answer the door (Shopee delivery!) or move to another room because their kid’s taking online classes. 

But the worst impediment to productivity may be terrible work-from-home equipment, from unstable network connections to slow personal computers that baulk when you have more than three tabs open at the same time. Other employees also have to share laptops with their kids who need to attend online classes simultaneously. 

This is a good opportunity for companies to offer work-from-home equipment or even provide home office allowances or insurances so that employees can do their best work.   

Other creative benefits packages:

• Education assistance for their kids. Many employees who have children pour a big part of their earnings into childcare and education expenses. Help them take care of their loved ones by providing assistance for things like tuition classes and enrichment classes.
• Pet insurance plans. There are plenty of employees out there who consider their pets as their children. Offering pet insurance plans gives them perks if they’re not eligible for typical parental benefits. 
• Netflix subscriptions and other in-home entertainment kits. More people are staying at home and looking to make their cribs as cosy as possible. Companies can help in this front by shouldering their Netflix subscriptions or even hosting online wellness programmes, just to show that they care about how their employees spend their downtime. 
• Wellness and health support. A lot of people turn to exercise and self-care rituals to cope with stress. Offer to subsidise exercise equipment, have healthy meals delivered to their doorstep once in a while, or give vouchers for a nice spa day or a visit to Jewel. Maybe gamify it by sponsoring prizes for hitting fitness goals (but make sure the reward isn’t junk food!).
• Free masks, home sanitation kits, and antigen rapid tests (ART). Have you ever felt the panic of pulling out your last mask? Employees never have to worry again if companies are shouldering masks for them. It’s a necessity in this day and age, and it shows employees that you care about their health and safety. If you can provide reusable ones, even better. This will appeal to employees who are trying to live a sustainable lifestyle. Giving out free ART kits could also come in handy in these uncertain times. 
• Telemedicine. To make staying healthy even more convenient, give your employees access to online consultation services.
• Counselling plans. As employees navigated the economic crisis, they became more conscious of their finances. Some companies began offering financial counselling plans to help employees budget for now and the future. Aside from financial counselling, consider covering counselling for issues such as work stress, self-esteem, and legal concerns. If you have the resources for it, perhaps extend this benefit to their immediate family.

Using technology to boost employee wellbeing

The importance of having the right benefits packages is pretty clear. But figuring out exactly what your workforce needs, and then getting them to fully utilise these benefits is another story altogether. This is where technology comes in. 

Technology has incrementally enhanced human resources functions over the years, from automating payroll to recruiting talent digitally. It can also play a role in making your company’s benefits packages more accessible, engaging, and efficient for employees.

A good starting point for increasing the utility of benefits and improving employee wellbeing is by providing a single platform for employees to access these benefits. An app, for instance, that lets employees avail of their benefits at any time of day, is inherently useful. Tools like these reduce the administrative burden on human resources staff and make benefits claims less tedious for employees. After all, Singaporean employees are already some of the most overworked in the world; claiming their benefits shouldn’t feel like more work. 

Here are some other ways you can digitalise employee benefits: 

• Offer digitalised benefits, such as online learning programmes (e.g. LinkedIn Learning) and telecare options
• Gamify benefits usage through rewards points and leaderboards 
• Utilise tools to communicate and distribute perks and benefits

By digitalising employee benefits, you can fully realise its potential in improving employee wellbeing. Here’s how:

It democratises perks and packages

Without technology, claiming benefits can be an impenetrable mystery for your employees. They know they have medical insurance or reimbursement perks for certain purchases, but they don’t necessarily know how to avail of these until they dig deeper. And once they do figure it out, they’ll have to fill up some forms and jump through hoops to claim those benefits. 

But with technology, accessing these benefits is a breeze. No more forms, no more cutting and pasting receipts, and no more errors. Employees can simply access the app or portal, select a schedule, and avail the perks in their own time, thereby increasing the odds they’ll use these perks in the first place. 

For more sensitive cases, like mental health, it may even remove the stigma for employees who may not be comfortable seeking help from their employers. Digitalisation can anonymise participation, allowing employees to get the help they need without fear of judgment. 

It improves participation through better employee experience

The efficiency brought on by technology has a number of advantages for both employers and employees. For employers, it takes away a lot of the administrative work and makes compliance easy for human resources teams. That means, the role of human resources shifts from administrative to strategic, so they can focus on engaging the workforce. 

And for employees, it greatly improves their experience with their company. For instance, using an all-in-one platform where employees are privy to their balance, plans, and claims information makes it easier for them to maximise the value of their benefits. It also reinforces a positive employer brand image, since it shows the company’s willingness to support its employees with useful benefits packages and seamless availment. 

For Ng Gian Heng, Area Director of Human Resource at InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay, using a mobile app for healthcare insurance has made life easier for employees and freed up their human resources. “Our employees can now submit and manage their medical claims digitally and access panel clinics easily with the GPS-enabled mobile app. HR no longer needs to spend time responding to employees' claims enquiries and can spend their time more effectively and efficiently in other HR activities,” he said. 

It fosters a sense of community and inclusivity 

Technology, especially in an era of remote work, can also function as a bridge between peers. It can be used to promote employee engagement as well as healthier lifestyles. Companies can gamify their benefits packages through rewards points and leaderboards to incentivise employees to keep using their perks. 

For instance, a company that values health and wellness can offer subscriptions to online yoga, meditation, or overall fitness classes and allocate points to employees who use these perks the most. Companies can then host raffles or giveaways to employees who accrue the most points, fostering a sense of community and reinforcing their corporate values. 

Making benefits accessible even in a remote setting also makes it more inclusive. According to The Future of Work and Digital Wellbeing report by The Economist Intelligence Unit, digitalisation has helped improve inclusion, diversity, and productivity: 

• 83% of people with a disability stated they were able to work because they had the option to do so either partly or wholly from home
• 48% of people working in virtual teams reported that over half their team members were members of other cultures
• 85% of businesses have increased productivity through tech-enabled flexible working

It offers insights into employee wants and needs

Lastly, digitalising benefits administration also opens the doors to tons of data—from employee demographics to the most- and least-used benefits. Having access to this data can be pivotal in your endeavour to improve employee wellbeing because it can tell you whether or not the benefits you’re providing are useful, who these benefits are useful for, and what other perks you could provide for your employees to help them do their best work. 

For instance, analytics on claims trends gave the Singapore University of Technology and Design deeper insight into their medical utilisation for both hospital and outpatient visits, says Dr. Jaclyn Lee, Senior Director for Human Resource and Organisation Development. “[This] helped us refine the design of our medical programme to appropriately respond to the needs of our employees whilst maintaining a balance to ensure that our medical programme would be sustainable in the longer run,” says Lee.

Especially in an era of remote work, where it’s impossible to tell whether or not employees are happy and engaged, technology is here to bridge that gap and help companies discover what needs to be done. 

Employees need to be cared for to do their best work

If anything, the pandemic was a reminder that employees are humans first. Without the proper care and support, they have no reason to remain loyal to your company. This is why companies need to take care of their employees, and make their support visible whether that’s through bonuses, childcare programmes, or comprehensive health insurances. 

And while employee benefits were secondary to salary for a time, employee wellbeing has and will always be central to any company’s success. The goal is for companies to create balanced, rewarding, and engaging compensation and benefits packages. Digitalisation is here to help employers do just that.

Howden can help you get there, too. We do a thorough review of your employee benefits insurance programme to see if employees are actually using them, if it delivers a positive impact on the business, and if there are opportunities to do things better. Comprehensive bespoke benefits are available at sustainable prices, and we harness claims analytics to reveal actionable insight on how to keep your employees healthy. 

Lastly, we understand that, if employees don’t know about them, then there’s no benefit. Through workshops, custom handbooks, and training programmes, we can lend your team a hand so that they can better communicate your benefits offering to current and prospective employees. 

Ready to digitalise and step into the future of employee benefits? Reach out to us and we’ll help you craft perks that everyone will love.