Mental health a key area where employers want to improve support
Employers in the Asia-Pacific region are planning to reallocate their benefits amid rising costs, with mental health remaining a core focus for improvement, according to a new report.
Findings from WTW's 2025 Benefits Trends Survey showed that 61% of employers are looking to reallocate or rebalance their benefits spending.
According to the report, the move comes as employers in the region deal with rising benefit costs and competition for talent.
"With rising budgetary pressures and employee benefit costs, particularly around healthcare, cost issues have intensified, impacting employers' ability to enhance and deliver on their employee benefits," said Rosyton Tan, Head of Health & Benefits, Asia Pacific, at WTW, in a statement.
"At the same time, competition for talent remains the biggest issue facing employers in APAC and that has been a top concern since 2021. Structural gaps in the labour market especially for specialised skills, demographic shifts and workforce preferences are also contributing factors to this challenge faced by employers."
Mental health in focus
The recalibration in the region involves enhancing some benefits or reducing and removing some, according to the report.
Mental health is a key area where 52% of APAC employers plan to enhance and improve. This is also the case for health benefits (50%) and financial wellbeing (28%).
In fact, the report found that a third of employers (33%) are planning to offer comprehensive leave for caregivers.
A similar percentage are also considering implementing medical benefits that support women's health, while 25% are planning on implementing a menopause policy.
Additionally, the report found that 46% of employers also want to focus on getting the best value from their current benefit programmes through enhanced communication or improved tools.
"The jump in the relevance of this area reflects companies' desire to extract more value from their current benefits, by assisting employees to make better use of what they currently have and improve their experience with benefits," the report read.
The report said employers would need to carefully consider employee needs and the value of their benefits to their organisation.
"They will need to recalibrate, doing less of what does not work and more of what does," Royston said.
"Companies need to invest in employee needs with greater precision, improving experience and choice, and using benefits to communicate who they are and what they stand for."
