Asian bosses 'less likely to offer choices'

In some countries, many employees are able to choose what they prefer to take in addition to a base cash salary.

This includes insurance and medical coverage, holiday options, allowances for cellphones, gym membership, child care and housing — even food.

Several Asian employers are embracing the trend, but there is some resistance.

A new survey by human resources consultancy firm Mercer indicates that companies across Asia are less likely than the rest of the world to offer their employees choices of which benefits they receive.

The survey, released last week, found that 18 percent of firms in Asia offer some form of choice for the supplementary benefits compared with 27 percent of all companies globally.

“The flex-programs have been prevalent in the United States and Europe for many years,” said Chow Yoke Fun, regional flex leader at Mercer's health and benefits business. “Flex was only introduced in Asia about 10 years ago. So, we are some way back.”

Kevin Ong, a consulting leader at human resource firm Towers Perrin, said, “Employers in Asia tend to focus on cash compensation to attract and retain talent... Flexible plans are thus less popular in Asia because the supplementary benefits form a smaller part of total employee compensation here compared with Europe and the U.S.

“This lack of scale would make the cost of administrating these flexi-plans disproportionate compared with the actual benefits that employees will receive.”

The Mercer survey polled more than 1,700 organizations in 47 countries in June this year. Some 540 companies from nine Asian countries were surveyed.

According to Mercer, companies which offer a choice of benefits often enter into arrangements whereby employees may exchange some or all of these for others, or for increased coverage.

Some companies may also give employees a set budget — which cannot be converted to cash — to “purchase” certain benefits, Mercer added.

While Mercer did not give a breakdown of its results by country, it estimates that more than 200 organizations in Singapore offer some form of choice to their employees in the benefits they receive. This is one of the largest numbers seen in Asia, but Mercer said that the take-up rate here is probably still below the average compared with that in Europe and North America.

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