Research: Benefit Strategies for Tomorrow's Workforce

Willis Towers Watson's research offers insights from the 2017/2018 Asia Pacific Benefit Trends survey. It found that while employers are aware of the potential power of employee benefits, they are facing several challenges that require benefit design and delivery to be very agile.

Key findings:

• Top priorities for benefits programmes over the next three years are to focus on changing benefit designs to manage costs and influence behaviours.
• Employers are taking a broader view than in the past on how benefits are designed.
• The majority of employers still focus on external benchmarking; however, a high percentage are also looking to the specific needs of their workforce.
• Cost and administrative complexity are seen as the top barriers to implementing greater choice as employers look to provide a consumer-grade experience for their employees.
• Asia Pacific employers are ambitious in their plans for their health and wellbeing strategies: in three years, 73% of employers plan to make their health and wellbeing a key competitive advantage.

This survey focuses on high-level trends around benefit strategy, benefit design, health and wellness, retirement plans, benefit delivery and benefit cost. It was conducted between April and June 2017, and received responses from 1,141 large Asia Pacific employers.