Global Employee Benefits Guide: Platforms, providers and trends

Global employee benefits challenges

There are many challenges HR face on a global level, some common and some not so common, but all equally important to be aware of and mitigate against.

Global consistency, local needs

This is a common challenge for virtually all global benefits managers.

Maintaining a consistent employee benefits experience globally, while catering to the needs of employees in each specific region can be tricky.

Local differences include, but aren’t limited to:

• Social security
• Tax
• Regulations
• Laws

This means some benefits can’t be implemented identically in different regions.

Some benefits though, like the EAP, can be implemented easily on the same level across different countries.

Language differences

With global employee benefits come lots of different areas where copy needs to be correctly translated.

This goes for copy and information hosted on a global employee benefits platform, communications, and employee agreements to name a few.

This can be tricky for some language recognition technology where special characters are used, for example such as Arabic or Chinese.

A global employee benefits provider can, however, ensure this isn’t an issue when introducing benefits in various countries.

Currency conversion

Lots of employee benefit schemes involve the exchange of money.

Employee discount schemes, for example, need to adhere to local currencies and fluctuations in value of currencies can add or detract from the value of a particular benefit.

A global benefits platform with currency conversion technology can help take care of this automatically.

Local benefits communications

More personalised employee benefits communications are more important than ever when implementing benefits nationally, but even more so on a global level.

For example, some benefits may be used more in some regions than others, and therefore different communications may be needed.

Getting the right communications out about benefits on a local level can be time consuming and an administrative burden without the right technology.

Differences in employee discounts

Employee discounts are a widely used and very popular employee benefit globally.

However, some stores are more popular in some regions than others, while some only exist in a limited number of territories at all.

A well-rounded discount scheme that provides value to employees wherever they are in the world is therefore needed to help provide this popular benefit to employees globally.

Keeping global employee benefits cost-effective

We’ve always maintained that employee benefits are an investment, not a cost.

However, the reality is budgets are tightening and as teams and benefits provisions scale globally, so does the cost.

Companies often experience “growing pains” when expanding their team and benefits globally.

Local expertise are needed to ensure the right benefits are offered and communicated at a local level.

Many companies hire local benefits managers to take care of this, and any such exercise should still ensure benefits are globally aligned.

How global macroenvironmental factors can affect global benefits

Aside from some of the common challenges, global benefits managers must be aware of the effects of global macroenvironmental factors on their whole benefits provision.

Global events

Whether it’s war, global economic downturns, shortages, global health challenges, there are many different types of events global benefits managers must be prepared for.

For example, many businesses with employees based in Ukraine in 2022 have increased healthcare benefit support for both physical and mental health to provide more cover for employees and their families.

The wider implications must be considered too.

While the health and safety of employees in the immediate term must be prioritised, there’s also the wider, longer-term ramifications to consider.

For example, global economic downturns can affect pension investments, leaving employees globally worried for their financial future.

Political, law and policy changes

Changes on a local level to laws and policies can affect global employee benefits provisions too.

For example, changes in local state healthcare or tax changes, such as the National Insurance changes made in the UK in 2022, can affect benefit schemes such as salary sacrifice schemes, for example.

Local cultural and lifestyle differences

Typical local lifestyle and cultural behaviours can affect how employees interact with their benefits.

Different lifestyle attitudes, climates and transport infrastructure can affect how employees use health and commuting benefits, for example.

Data from Run Repeat in 2021 found Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland to be in the top 6 countries for gym-goers as a percentage of their countries population, making them some of the fittest and most active countries in the world.

Health and wellbeing employee benefits in this instance could help support employees in those countries with those particular health habits.

Global employee benefits trends

So, with these challenges in mind, how are employers rolling out successful global employee benefits provisions?

Here are a few of the big trends we’ve seen recently.

Increased mental wellbeing support

Overall, globally we’ve seen employers increasing the mental wellbeing support available to employees through their employee benefits.

Even more so where employees are based in Ukraine or neighbouring nations in 2022.

Examples include increased levels of counselling support through the EAP, increased compassionate leave, extra mental wellbeing resources and empowering employees to provide mental health first aid to colleagues.

Increased financial wellbeing support

The global economy has certainly seen better days and many are feeling the pinch across the world.

Again, businesses have been required to step up to support employees affected by the war in Ukraine, some offering advances on salaries and extra financial support to those affected.

Financial wellbeing libraries through a global employee benefits platform that reflect local policies can help equip employees with the right information.

Improving financial resilience for employees wherever they are in the world is a big priority for global businesses right now and this is being reflected in their global benefits.

Managing local differences in rules and regulations

As mentioned, a big challenge for global benefits managers is dealing with local differences in policies and regulations.

Many businesses are using local scheme providers incorporated into a global benefits platform to ensure benefits meet local rules.

Global employee benefits providers are also helping businesses implement benefits that work at a local level but fit into a broader global benefits offering too.

Global flexible benefits

With flexible benefits, employee have more choice over their benefits.

Global flexible benefits provide even more personalisation to ensure benefits make a real difference at a local level for employees and their families.

For example, employees in regions without state healthcare may wish to opt for better health coverage with their benefits.

Those in cities like London or New York for example may opt for commuting benefits instead.

With a flexible benefits allowance, employees can allocate their allowance to the things that matter most to them and their family.

Responses to the climate crisis

Without doubt there’s been an increased focus on the climate crisis globally in recent years.

How employees adapt at a local level may differ.

For example, the Netherlands have a strong cycling culture and infrastructure, and so benefits to support this may resonate more.

In regions where the work commute may be longer, a car scheme that makes electric motoring more accessible may be optimal.

Local benchmarking

One of the most important KPI’s and measurements for the success of employee benefits is scheme take-up.

However, on a global scale, take-up can tell a very different story.

Take-up in one region may be drastically different in one region compared to another, but this doesn’t always mean that one has been successful and the other hasn’t.

Data and KPI’s like this should always be benchmarked locally against other businesses.

A global employee benefits provider can help provide this data and provide guidance on where to focus efforts to improve.

Rising employee expectations

In recent years we’ve seen rising employee expectations and employers stepping up and taking more responsibility when it comes to supporting employees.

This is also true on a global level.

Employers are turning to global employee benefits technology to help make benefits more easily accessible, easier to implement globally, easier to administrate and easier to communicate with built-in communications.

All of this is helping employers combat the big global challenges when it comes to recruiting the best talent and retaining and engaging employees.

Supporting commutes and travel

With a global team, employees find themselves in very different settings locally.

For example, many employers have offices in major cities across the world like New York, Tokyo and London. They may also have employees based in quieter towns and cities across different countries.

Commuting by public transport might be more applicable for those in London and New York, while commuting by car might be more appropriate for those based more rurally.

There’s differing national approaches to public transport too.

The Independent reported in May 2022 that Deutsche Bahn in Germany launched an unlimited travel ticket costing just £7.70 a month.

Where public transport is more expensive, employers are providing commuting loans to help cut the cost.

Where employees need to drive in to work, car benefit schemes are proving more popular.

Examples of how benefits may differ for different regions

As mentioned, benefits like commuting loans tend to be more popular for employees in busy, built-up cities like London and New York, with the Bike Scheme also proving popular in the UK.

Schemes like Holiday Trading, where employees can buy and sell annual leave, may prove more popular in countries where the minimum required annual leave per year is lower, for example.

Different countries tend to have different rules on things like maternity and paternity leave too, for example, which employers may want to subsidise to help keep benefits consistent on a global level.

For example, in the UK the minimum is 39 weeks, whereas in New Zealand it’s 22 weeks, so employers should consider benefits like this too.

These are just a few examples of how benefits may differ across regions as part of a global employee benefits set-up.

How a global employee benefits platform can help

A global employee benefits platform can bring with it a ton of features to help make introducing global benefits a seamless experience for the employer and employees.

Data

Platforms that pull together region-specific data can unveil highly valuable insights into how employees in those regions are using their employee benefits.

These insights can be invaluable in tweaking, optimising and improving the employee benefits proposition on a global and local level.

It can also help make communications more targeted and more effective in specific regions, improving up-take and the employee benefits experience for employees.

A global employee benefits provider will help benchmark this data locally too, so employers can get even deeper insight into how successful their global benefits are.

Communications

A global employee benefits platform can provide loads of important information on each benefit within the platform in local languages, as well as links to locally translated downloadable materials to explain the ins and outs of benefits.

Reduced administrative burden

With a global platform, local and global benefits managers can manage enrolment activities and reporting can be fully automated, reducing the administrative burden of global employee benefits.

Quick and seamless integration of new benefits

While global benefits managers will want to create a seamless employee benefits experience across all regions, two regions will most likely have different benefits offerings.

Where one benefit scheme works well in one country, for example, global benefits managers might want to trial the scheme in a new region or territory.

A global employee benefits platform allows for the same or similar schemes to be “switched on” seamlessly in other regions, with the scheme automatically adapted to local regulations if needs be.

Access anytime, anywhere

A global platform allows employees to access their benefits wherever they are in the world, whenever they like.

This goes for employees based in different regions, but also for expat employees and those travelling, perhaps for work or even on holiday.

For example, expat staff, employees travelling for work or on holiday can use their employee discounts and save abroad as well as at home.

Finding the right global benefits provider

Rolling out global benefits with the right provider is easier than you might think.

We tend to walk our clients through this process, recommending only what we think is right for the business and their employees.

Global employee benefits can be rolled out in phases too, with benefits added to new countries in different stages if needed.

We’ve done this for a number of our clients, taking on all the administration and set up to provide benefits for employees across continents seamlessly.

For more on how we can do this for your business, get in touch and we’ll walk you through.