Take your pick

According to a recent Mercer report, Asian employers are among the world’s least likely to offer flexible benefits to their staff. Just 18% of Asian employers – out of 540 companies across nine Asian countries surveyed – offer some form of employee choice for supplementary medical benefits, ranging from insurance and improved medical coverage to gym memberships and even shopping vouchers. The global average is 50% higher.

Chow Yoke Fun, Regional Flex Leader for Mercer’s Health and Benefits division, says so-called “Flex-Programmes” have been prevalent in the US and Europe for many years. “Flex was only introduced into Asia about 10 years back, so we are some way back.”

A typical plan

Still, change is on the way as organisations are increasingly realising the importance of flexible benefits plans. Narelle Tierney, HR Leader, Southeast Asia, Towers Watson, said by offering an employee choice plan, companies can have an effective attraction, retention and motivation tool along with a better gauge of the costs associated with providing benefits for their staff.

“Employee choice is all about recognising the different lifestyle needs and expectations of your workforce. It’s a great opportunity for (organisations) to offer (their) employees what they really value,” Tierney said. “It also allows senior management to better plan for the costs associated with providing benefits to their employees.”

Vincent Romano, Senior Consultant at the HR division of Robert Walters, said that flexible benefits plans empower employees, increasing employee engagement and hence, retention. “The company can be perceived as being more responsive to the individual employee’s needs by allowing him the choice of benefits,” he said.

According to Towers Watson, a typical Flex Plan in Asia comprises core and optional benefits. Core benefits, such as hospital and illness insurance cover, provide a minimum level of assurance for employee security and wellbeing – a safety net for all staff. Optional benefits allow an employee to use their Flex credits to purchase extra cover on the benefits that they value the most. In addition, employees can claim rebates on a wide variety of items through a Flexible Spending Account.

OCBC’s approach

OCBC Bank has operated a Flex Plan for its Singapore employees since 2004. It launched the programme after findings from its annual Employee Survey indicated that employees wanted greater choice over their health insurance.

Jacinta Low, Head, HR Planning and Employee Communications, OCBC, says the bank worked to give them exactly that. “The Flex Plan offers our employees more choices in managing their benefits to meet their diverse needs and evolving lifestyles,” she tells HRM. “In line with the bank’s philosophy to engage our employees in all that we do, we constantly solicit their feedback to find out what they want most, so that we are able to have an updated suite of benefits to suit.”

Under the OCBC Flex Plan, all staff are offered a varying number of “Flex Dollars” each year. These can be used for a wide variety of benefits. Of course, workers have used their flexible benefits currency to pay for healthcare expenses for both themselves and their families. But “Flex-Dollars” can also cover membership subscriptions for health, sports and recreation clubs or gymnasiums.

Other staff have appreciated the chance to spend the flexible benefits on optical needs or computer peripherals and software. Getting even further away from traditional healthcare, some Flex Dollars have even been spent on vacation expenses – with OCBC saying a good holiday can do a world of good for long term health.

Employees aged 40 and above can also use Flex Dollars dedicated for health screening purposes. The Flex Plan is reviewed annually to help ensure that it stays relevant to employee needs.

Low says the Flex Plan was an instant hit amongst staff, and 100% of employees are now fully utilising their Flex Dollars. However, the implementation wasn’t without its obstacles.

“One of the main challenges faced by most companies when it comes to implementing flexible benefits is educating employees to take ownership of their own benefits and to fully utilise the plan,” Low says.

“We believe that for it to be successful, communicating and educating employees about the benefits of such a programme therefore becomes critical. Only then will employees learn how to proactively manage their own flex plan to suit their lifestyle needs.”

The OCBC Flex Plan has since been extended to the bank’s subsidiaries in Malaysia.