Flexible benefits may work for Bruneian firms

HUMAN resource consulting firm Watson Wyatt is considering introducing to Brunei's private sector the concept of flexible employee benefits, a growing trend practised in other countries.

Watson Wyatt, which has done several employee compensation studies in other countries, recently completed a similar study in Brunei.

While the consultants have yet to release the findings of the Brunei study, they see flexible benefits, a trend that allows the employer to make sure that the benefits are fully enjoyed by employees, as relevant for Brunei.

"Based on our surveys, we have found out that employees do not fully enjoy the benefits that are given by the employer. For example, we found that for certain companies, the most expensive benefits are the least appreciated by the employees," said Richard Yeo, senior consultant of Watson Wyatt Singapore.

One example is office uniform, which is actually quite costly for the employer, however, the firm has found out that employees in general prefer to have a choice on their benefits.

"So by giving the employee a choice, they are able to rechannel their funds into something that would be more exciting for the employees," Yeo said.

Watson Wyatt will be having a breakfast session on human resources trends on November 24, where its experts will conduct sessions on topics relevant to the Brunei market.

Mark Whatley, Asean practice leader of Watson Wyatt's benefits consulting practice based in Singapore, will discuss consulting services on all aspects of employee benefit programmes in Singapore and across the Asean region, and this will include an elaboration of flexible benefits and how it works.

"In the past, what is given to an employee are basic things like medical, and a company may give the employee this and that, but based on the results of our survey, and we know in the Bruneian market, that even though some companies put together very exciting benefits, we found that they still want a choice, so instead of spending all of the budget, an employee can set how much they want for what they want," said Yeo.

"Of course there is a certain coverage that needs to be covered in terms of labour law, and every employer needs to cover accidental insurance, but some companies have 12 months coverage and some have 24 months coverage. An employee could decide that maybe he wants the 12 months coverage and the remaining amount that is used for the other 12 months could be spent on things like a gym membership or even vitamins and supplements that could be claimed from the company," said Yeo.

Their surveys also show that employees prefer flexibility with off days. Yeo said that each company has a minimum set of leave and some companies that have flexible benefits would include choices where an employee could sell off their leave to get "points" and exchange it for something else.

"If an employee wants more leave, then they could buy a few more days of leave with their 'points' and so on," he said.

Flexible benefits is not a new concept in employee benefits across the globe, however, it was never pursued until recently.

Two of the countries that currently practice flexible benefits include China and the US, where the "demand for talent" is high and so companies and organisations in these two countries have flexible benefits to make the working environment more attractive.

In the Asean region, while Singapore and Malaysia have yet to start to pursuing flexible benefits, Indonesia has already started offering flexible benefits, he said.

Yeo said that in order for flexible benefits to be successful, there has to be the proper IT infrastructure in place.

"If you look at China, where for example, headquarters are in Shanghai, and everywhere else is where the offices are, their IT system allows easy access (to the company database) and there are people who are professionally managing the portal for these benefits," he said.

He added one of the reasons US companies offer flexible benefits is due to "double coverage".

"For instance, a company would normally cover you and your spouse, so if both of them work and they are both covered, then the wife would say that this year she won't take the coverage because she is already being covered by her husband's company insurance, so she would spend her 'points' on something else," he said.

This practice not only gives the employees what they want and appreciate but also saves the company money, he added.

"The (human resource) industry has started to realise that a lot of companies, especially those with a variety of age groups, can't have the same benefits to cover all age groups, because at different times in your life, you want different things. A younger person may want more travel time, while an older employee would want more health coverage," he said.

The Brunei Times