2022 Employee

Benefits Trends
A HR guide to what’s next for benefits

Singapore | Malaysia A
 Table of content

1 What’s inside

1 Who is this for

2 Introduction

3 At a glance

4 What is employee benefits

6 Why spend on medical benefits

8 Chapter 1: current practices

8 • Ways of administering employee medical benefits
10 • Types of medical benefits provided
13 • Amount spent on the various ways of providing medical benefits
15 • Amount spent on the various employee medical benefits categories
18 • Resources administering employee medical benefits
19 • Frequency of evaluating medical benefits policy

20 Chapter 2: challenges
20 • Concerns with employee medical benefits
22 • 3 Tips to implement customised, flexible benefits plan

23 Chapter 3: what’s next

23 • Top priority for employee benefits this year
24 • 5 Tips to understand your employees’ needs
25 • Ways of reducing cost of healthcare spending
28 • 5 Tips to reduce medical benefits costs

30 Final thoughts

31 Methodologies

31 Participant demographics

34 About mednefits

35 Useful resources

36 References
What’s This report combines survey results
from 200 HR decision-makers from

inside
Singapore and Malaysia to deliver
data-driven current practices for
employee medical and flexible
benefits and topmost concerns
and challenges.

Who is Human Resource managers and

executives in Singapore and

this for Malaysia that run businesses

of different sizes and in various
industries. With findings directly
collated in a localised context,
this survey allows HRs on the
ground to get access to relevant
benchmarking data in order to
better execute their Employee
Benefits planning.

1
Introduction
As we enter the year 2022, employee benefits
will be one of the key considerations when
talents look for employers. The recent health
pandemic has made medical benefits even
more critical for employees, especially those
with ageing parents and young children.

More companies in Singapore and Malaysia

are looking to enhance and review their
employee benefits package to stay ahead of
the competition in attracting and retaining top
talents.

However, the lack of an up-to-date medical

benefits benchmark made the annual benefits
review that much more difficult. HR professionals
need to know the current landscape of medical
benefits to act as the benchmark. This will lead
to a better understanding of where they stand
currently.

It is also a plus to know what challenges other

companies face and how they overcome
them when it comes to employee benefits. This
way, HR professionals can get data-driven
recommendations to improve their benefits.

This 2022 and beyond will be all about putting

health first.

2
At a glance The top 3 medical benefits provided
are hospitalisation, general
practitioner and health screening.

Overall

75% General Practitioner 56%

65% of companies provide
Hospitalisation

employee medical benefits Health Screening 55% Dental 51%

using insurance. Specialist 33% Optical 26%

Overall Wellness
Traditional Chinese
(Yoga, physio, mental 20% Medicine (TCM) 13%
health, etc.

Insurance
(Inpatient & outpatient 65% 18% BASE (N=200)
medical benfits)

Self-managed 7%
manually via company 47%
reimbursement

Through a Third-Party 2%
31%

Organisations are mostly

Administrator (TPA)

8% concerned with designing

a flexible benefits plan,
BASE (N=200)

increasing benefits costs, and

administrative burden
Overall

The average amount spent on Designing a flexible

benefits plan that
Administrative

medical benefits per employee

34% burden for managing 22%
is customised for benefits and claims
employees

is $528. Hospitalisation and Increasing cost of

Using benefits as a

specialist costs are the highest.

healthcare plans 28% 17%
and premiums tool to attract talent

BASE (N=200)

Overall

Avg.

Hospitalisation
(N=150) 13% 39% 22% 13% 13% $748

The top priorities for organisations

General
Practitioner
23% 52% 22% 3% 1% $400
(N=111)

Health
Screening 26% 56% 14% 4% 1% $371 in 2022 are understanding
employees’ needs, finding creative
(N=109)

ways to reduce costs, and measuring

Dental
(N=102) 28% 59% 9% 4% 1% $349

Specialist
(N=65) 19% 37% 29% 9% 6% $610
the effectiveness of current benefits.
Optical
(N=51) 43% 45% 4% 6% 2% $336 Overall

Wellness
Understand Measure the
employees' needs 25%
(Yoga, physio,
mental health, etc. 18% 43% 25% 15% $558 to provide more
36% effectiveness of
existing benefits
(N=40) attractive benefits packages

Traditional
Chinese
40% 44% 12% 4% $322 Finding creative
Medicine (TCM) Implement
(N=25) ways to reduce the 25% customised benefits 15%
cost of benefits packages

BASE (N=200)

3
What is
employee benefits

Employee benefits Employee benefits

Employee benefits packages are an important
part of employee retention and attraction
strategies because they allow businesses to
compete for top employees.

Medical benefits Flexible benefits If you’re not familiar with employee benefits, it’s
any extra perk your business offers to its workers.
For example, an employer might offer benefits like
flexible working hours for higher productivity and
better employee well-being.
Inpatient and Non-medical
outpatient and allowances Employee benefits typically comprise two broad
categories: Medical and Flexible benefits.

Medical benefits
Medical Benefits means the medical, dental, health, hospital, and disability benefits provided under
any and all benefit policies, plans, programs or arrangements of the employer. Generally, medical
benefits have two categories: inpatient and outpatient.

Examples of inpatient care are:

Inpatient • Surgeries, routine and complex
An inpatient is a sick or injured
• Childbirth
patient who needs to stay
overnight in a hospital for close • Serious illnesses or health issues that require
monitoring and treatment.
substantial monitoring

• Rehabilitation services for severe injuries,

substance misuse, or psychiatric conditions

Without a doubt, inpatient costs are substantially

higher than outpatient costs because inpatient
care uses more hospital resources, including beds,
and the time of healthcare professionals.

4
 Outpatient Examples of outpatient care are:
• Consultations with specialists or
When patients are sick, injured,
General Practitioners (GP)
or require certain types of testing
or treatment but do not require
• Wellness and prevention services such as
the overnight monitoring and
psychological counselling and
care of a hospital, they are
considered outpatients. weight-loss programs

• Diagnostics services like blood and urine

lab tests, x-rays, and scans

• Treatments such as surgeries and therapies

without needing hospital care

• Rehabilitation like physiotherapy

Flexible Benefits
Flexible benefits, also known as cafeteria benefits, allows employees to choose their preferred benefits
from a pool of options set by the employer. It’s like eating at a cafeteria, where you get in line and
choose the food you want. In this case, employees get to choose how much they want to spend on
specific benefits.

Potential options include increasing EPF or CPF percentage contributions, leave amount, and
comprehensive insurance. Options offered are often determined by the management upon seeking
opinions from employees to attain the highest satisfaction rate.

• Transportation • Retirement plan support

• Gym membership • Workplace nursery
• Supplement • Home office allowance
Flexible benefits include • Parking • Flexible working hours
all non-medical benefits • Meal subsidies • Remote work options
and allowances, such as: • Loan support

5
Why spend on
employee benefits
Overall

A way to generate Compliance with

greater employee 52% mandatory medical 49%
engagement coverage

Tool to increase
An added cost to the 28%
employee retention 49% organisation
and attract talent

BASE (N=200)

Half of the participants see employee benefits The fact is clear: employee benefits are
as a way to generate greater employee important to your employee engagement,
engagement, a tool to increase employee retention, and attraction.
retention and attract talent, and to remain
compliant with mandatory medical coverage. However, 3 out of 10 companies consider
benefits an added cost to the organisation,
And they’re right. Great benefits do attract especially medical benefits. With the increasing
the best talents. In fact, 60%1 of employees premiums and healthcare costs, it can be
consider benefits and perks as a major factor difficult to provide an extensive medical care
when deciding on a job offer. package to employees.

Great benefits packages also retain talents. So, here’s a way to decide if providing
A LinkedIn study found that companies rated employee benefits is feasible for your company.
highly on compensation and benefits saw
56%2 lower attrition. Cost of Replacing An Employee + Cost of
Recruiting An Employee + Cost Of Low
Last but not least, the right benefits packages Employee Engagement
increase employee engagement. A study by
Benify found that employees who are most If the total cost above is higher than a benefits
satisfied with their total benefits package package per employee, it might be a good
rated their level of engagement 11.5%3 higher opportunity to reconsider providing or
than the average. expanding benefits packages.

6
 By Company Type

A way to generate greater Compliance with mandatory

employee engagement medical coverage

49% 49%

60% 48%

Tool to increase employee An added cost to the

retention and attract talent organisation

47% 30%

56% 20%

SME (N=150) MNC (N=50)

Compared to SMEs, more than half of the are all about growth. Most of their revenue is
MNCs consider benefits as a tool for employee channelled back to growth. Thus leaving little
engagement, retention and attraction. As for for other areas such as benefits.
SMEs, they’re more likely to perceive benefits
as an added cost compared to MNCs. MNCs on the other hand, have higher human
resource bandwidth and budget to provide
For one, SMEs are smaller in size, which means benefits as part of their company goals.
they have less human resource bandwidth to
implement and oversee employee benefits. The good thing is that more and more SMEs
Hiring an employee to administer employee have realised the importance of having robust
benefits could be seen as an added cost. employee benefits and they’re exploring
budget-friendly ways.
Another reason why SMEs perceive benefits as
an added cost is because their current goals

7
Chapter 1:
current practices
Ways of administering employee medical benefits

Overall

Insurance
(Inpatient & outpatient 65% 18%
medical benfits)

Self-managed 7%
manually via company 47%
reimbursement

Through a Third-Party 2%
Administrator (TPA) 31%

8%
BASE (N=200)

In Singapore and Malaysia, there are several reason being that their insurance providers
different ways companies administer their might not have all the medical benefits that
employee medical benefits. The most common they want or it is too expensive to cover.
method is by using an insurance provider for Thus, the companies employ reimbursement
inpatient and outpatient medical benefits systems and processes for some of the
(65%). Less than half of the companies are medical benefits.
self-managing the benefits or going through a
Third-Party Administrator (TPA). There are significantly more companies
in Malaysia that administer their medical
Nearly 1 in 5 companies are using both benefits via insurance providers than those
insurance and self-managed benefits. The in Singapore.

8
 By Country

Insurance 55%
(Inpatient & outpatient
medical benfits) 74%

Self-managed 48%
manually via company
reimbursement 46%

34%
Through a Third-Party
Administrator (TPA) 27%

7%

9%

15%

20%

5%

9%

4%

Singapore (N=100) Malaysia (N=100)

9
Types of medical benefits provided

Overall

Hospitalisation 75% General Practitioner 56%

Health Screening 55% Dental 51%

Specialist 33% Optical 26%

Wellness
Traditional Chinese
(Yoga, physio, mental 20% Medicine (TCM) 13%
health, etc.

BASE (N=200)

In Singapore and Malaysia, the 3 most and more companies are joining the crew.
common medical benefits provided are They’re placing additional emphasis on mental
hospitalisation (75%), general practitioner wellness because nearly 7 in 10 Singaporeans5
(56%) and health screening (55%). and 1 in 3 Malaysians6 are struggling with
mental health.
The least common are optical (26%), wellness
(20%), and Traditional Chinese Medicine (13%). One of the fastest emerging new medical
benefits is Traditional Chinese Medicine
However, there is an increasing need for (TCM). This is because TCM is well-accepted
optical care. The Ministry of Health of in Singapore and Malaysia. An MOH survey
Singapore announced that the short- showed that 53%7 of Singaporeans had
sightedness rate in Singapore is one of the consulted a TCM practitioner in the previous
highest in the world, with 83%4 of young adults year. The surge could also be due to TCM
being short-sighted. Malaysia is also facing being recognised8 by the World Health
the same predicament. Organisation.

Next in demand is wellness. Wellness includes Not all companies provide medical benefits
gym membership, supplements, yoga classes, equally. It is shown that MNCs provide more
medical benefits than SMEs, except for
mental healthcare, physiotherapy, and so
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
on. Although only 20% of employers provide
wellness benefits, we’ve learned that more

10
 By Company Type

73%
Hospitalisation 80%

53%
General Practitioner 62%

53%
Health Screening
60%

48%
Dental
60%

29%
Specialist
44%

22%
Optical
36%

Wellness 17%
(Yoga, physio, mental
health, etc. 28%

Traditional Chinese 13%

Medicine (TCM)
10%

SME (N=150) MNC (N=50)

A significantly higher proportion of Singapore organisations cover expenses for General Practitioners.
This is aligned with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) guideline9 that a company is required to pay the
employee their salary and cover their medical consultation fee if their medical certificate is issued from
a public medical institution or an appointed clinic by the company.

11
As you’ve seen on Page 9, 74% of companies in Malaysia administer medical benefits via insurance
providers. Most insurance providers in Malaysia focus on hospitalisation, specialist, and optical, leading
to higher coverage in these areas in Malaysia than in Singapore.

By Country

69%
Hospitalisation
81%

71%
General Practitioner
40%

56%
Health Screening
53%

51%
Dental
51%

27%
Specialist
38%

20%
Optical
31%

Wellness 19%
(Yoga, physio, mental
health, etc. 21%

Traditional Chinese 17%

Medicine (TCM) 8%

Singapore (N=100) Malaysia (N=100)

12
Amount spent on the various ways of providing medical benefits

Overall

Avg. amount
per employee $565 $480 $541

Less than 100USD 4% 5%

8%
3% 7%
101 - 500 USD
7%
501 - 1,000 USD

1,001 - 2,000 USD

23%
17% 26%
More than 2,001 USD

54% 51% 43%

14% 18% 20%

Insurance Self-managed Through a

(Inpatient & outpatient manually via company Third-Party
medical benfits) reimbursement Administrator
(N=129) (N=94) (N=61)

On average, organisations are spending the most (i.e. USD 565) per employee via Insurance. This is
congruent with the trend we have observed because HRs in companies that use insurance will incur
relatively higher costs from inpatient coverage. On average, organisations spend the least (i.e. USD 480
) per employee via reimbursement.

13
 By Country
Avg.

4% 53% 20% 13% 11% $721

(N=55)
Insurance
(Inpatient &
outpatient 22% 55% 15% 3% 5% $448
medical benfits) (N=74)

10% 56% 27% 2% 4% $497

(N=48)
Self-managed
manually
via company 26% 46% 20% 4% 4% $462
reimbursement (N=46)

15% 47% 29% 3% 6% $539

(N=34)
Through a
Third-Party
Administrator 26% 237% 22% 11% 4% $545
(TPA) (N=27*)

By Company Type

Avg.

SME
(N=93) 13% 56% 17% 5% 9% $563
Insurance
(Inpatient &
outpatient MNC 17% 50% 17% 11% 6% $570
medical benfits) (N=36)

SME
(N=73) 18% 53% 21% 4% 4% $476
Self-managed
manually
MNC 43% 5% $493
via company
(N=21*)
19% 33%
reimbursement

SME 49% $488

(N=47) 21% 21% 2% 6%
Through a
Third-Party
Administrator MNC 14% 21% 43% 21% $722
(TPA) (N=14*)

Less than 100USD 101 - 500 USD 501 - 1,000 USD 1,001 - 2,000 USD More than 2,001 USD

14
Amount spent on the various employee medical benefits categories
Largely, the amount spent by companies per employee is the highest on benefits like
hospitalisation & specialist.

Overall

Avg.

Hospitalisation
(N=150) 13% 39% 22% 13% 13% $748

General
Practitioner
23% 52% 22% 3% 1% $400
(N=111)

Health
Screening 26% 56% 14% 4% 1% $371
(N=109)

Dental
(N=102) 28% 59% 9% 4% 1% $349

Specialist
(N=65) 19% 37% 29% 9% 6% $610

Optical
(N=51) 43% 45% 4% 6% 2% $336

Wellness
(Yoga, physio,
mental health, etc. 18% 43% 25% 15% $558
(N=40)

Traditional
Chinese
Medicine (TCM)
40% 44% 12% 4% $322
(N=25)

Less than 100USD 101 - 500 USD 501 - 1,000 USD 1,001 - 2,000 USD More than 2,001 USD

15
The per employee spend in Singapore is the most on hospitalisation benefits, with 20% of organisations
spending more than $2000. The per employee spend in Malaysia on Hospitalisation benefits is also
relatively high. There is a significant 35% of organisations that spend USD 501 - USD 1,000 per employee on
General Practitioner benefits.

By Country

Avg.

(N=69) 9% 35% 22% 14% 20% $900

Hospitalisation (N=81) 17% 42% 22% 12% 6% $619

(N=71) 25% 56% 14% 3% 1% $371

General
Practitioner
(N=40) 18% 45% 35% 3% $453

(N=56) 21% 57% 13% 7% 2% $430

Health
Screening
(N=53) 30% 55% 15% $308

(N=51) 16% 69% 10% 4% 2% $394

Dental (N=51) 39% 49% 8% 4% $304

(N=27*) 19% 37% 33% 7% 4% $565

Specialist (N=38) 18% 37% 26% 11% 8% $643

(N=20*) 40% 40% 5% 15% $423

Optical (N=31) 45% 48% 3% 3% $280

(N=19*) 16% 42% 21% 21% $616

Wellness
(Yoga, physio,
mental health, etc.
(N=21*) 19% 43% 29% 10% $505

(N=17*) 47% 35% 18% $286

Traditional
Chinese
Medicine (TCM) (N=8*) 25% 63% 13% $400

Less than 100USD 101 - 500 USD 501 - 1,000 USD 1,001 - 2,000 USD More than 2,001 USD

16
The spending on employee medical benefits are largely similar across SMEs and MNCs except for
General Practitioner. More MNCs are spending $501-$1000 per employee on General Practitioner as
compared to SMEs.

By Company Type

Avg.

SME (N=110) 14% 42% 19% 11% 14% $737

Hospitalisation MNC (N=40) 13% 30% 30% 20% 8% $778

SME (N=80) 24% 56% 15% 4% 1% $387

General
Practitioner MNC (N=31) 19% 42% 39% $436

SME (N=79) 28% 52% 14% 5% 1% $390

Health
Screening
MNC (N=30) 20% 67% 13% $320

SME (N=72) 25% 60% 10% 4% 1% $368

Dental MNC (N=30) 33% 57% 7% 3% $304

SME (N=43) 16% 40% 33% 5% 7% $589

Specialist MNC (N=22*) 23% 32% 23% 18% 5% $653

SME (N=33) 49% 49% 3% $240

Optical MNC (N=18*) 33% 39% 11% 11% 6% $511

SME (N=26*) 19% 46% 27% 8% $475

Wellness
(Yoga, physio,
mental health, etc.
MNC (N=14*) 14% 36% 21% 29% $711

SME (N=20*) 40% 45% 15% $288

Traditional
Chinese
Medicine (TCM)
MNC (N=5*) 40% 40% 20% $460

Less than 100USD 101 - 500 USD 501 - 1,000 USD 1,001 - 2,000 USD More than 2,001 USD

17
Resources administering employee medical benefits
After looking at the costs related to each benefit category type and benefits administration method
type, the next concern that HR managers would have is related to the amount of administrative work
required to implement and manage the benefits policy. This is crucial as it counts as manpower costs.
From an HR perspective, they will need to evaluate to see if the benefits policy can be effectively
executed by the manpower within the HR team.

On average, companies have allocated approximately 5 resources for administering & overseeing
medical benefits. As compared to SMEs, MNCs have deployed slightly more resources.

Overall

More than 20 | 9%

11-20 | 5% 1-2 | 26%

Avg. No. of
resources:

5
6-10 | 23%

3-5 | 38%

By Country By Company Type

Avg. 5 6 Avg. 5 7

10% 8% 7% 14%
1% 4%
9%
8%
23% 23%
23%

34%

41% 34% 39%

32%

30%
25% 26%
12%

SME MNC
(N=150) (N=50)
(N=100) (N=100)

1-2 3-5 6-10 11-20 More than 20

18
Frequency of evaluating medical benefits policy
Companies mostly review & re-evaluate their medical benefits policy every year. While more
organisations in Malaysia re-evaluate their policies every 6 months, a significantly higher proportion of
companies do so every 2 years in Singapore.

Overall

More than every

5 years | 3%

Every 6 months | 13%

Every 5 years | 2%

Every 2 years | 22%

Every year | 61%

By Country By Company Type

1% 6% 3% 4%
3% 2% 2%
29%
14% 23% 18%

59%
59% 68%
63%

18% 14%
7% 8%

SME MNC
(N=150) (N=50)
(N=100) (N=100)

Every 6 months Every year Every 2 years Every 5 years More than every 5 years

19
Chapter 2:
challenges
Concerns with employee medical benefits

Overall

Designing a flexible Administrative

benefits plan that 22%
is customised for
34% burden for managing
benefits and claims
employees

Increasing cost of
Using benefits as a 17%
healthcare plans 28% tool to attract talent
and premiums

BASE (N=200)

Designing a customised, flexible employee 2. Help the company stand out.

benefits plan is the topmost concern of Flexible benefits are what job seekers and top
organisations. talents look for right now because it allows
them to have more control over their lifestyles.
The reason why companies are looking into
providing customised, flexible benefits plans 3. Gives better financial control.
is because of the following 3 reasons: A customised, flexible benefits plan allows the
employer to set a spending limit for each month,
1. It meets employee needs. which lets them see how much the employee
Each company has a diverse and multi- is spending every year. This data helps with
generational workforce. With the diversity of budgeting and becomes a constant limit for
employees comes a diversity of needs. With the employee. For example, a young employee
a customised, flexible benefits plan, each spends more on GP but less on hospitalisation.
employee is able to choose and use the most In the following year, the employer can allocate
meaningful benefits. This shows employees more to GP and less to hospitalisation. Doing
that the companies are putting in the effort to this can help the company save money in the
meet their needs, which can lead to greater long run.
productivity, employee morale,
and engagement.

20
 Overall

Unsure if employees will 28%

appreciate flexible benefits
71%

22%
Too much friction within the
company to make changes
66%

Unsure what tools are 20%

available to implement
flexible benefits 62%

Unable to convince 18%

management to try
something new 58%

13%
Don’t understand what
flexible benefits are 43%

Rank 1 Top 3

However, providing a customised, flexible benefits plan is companies’ topmost concern

because of a few reasons:

• Unsure if employees will appreciate flexible benefits

• Too much friction within the company to make changes
• Unsure what tools are available to implement flexible benefits
• Unable to convince management to try something new
• Don’t understand what flexible benefits are

If you are experiencing similar challenges, the following section can help with the transition.

21
3 tips to implement customised, flexible benefits plan

01 Do a Benefits Sentiment Finding

If you’re unsure whether your employees will appreciate flexible benefits or not,
conduct a benefits sentiment finding to find out what they think. Some of the
critical information that can help in decision-making are:

• Their interest in having flexible benefits

• Types of benefits they want to have more of
• Types of benefits-related events they’d be interested in

Download our Benefits Sentiment Finding template here.

02 Show Relevant Case Studies

To get buy-in from management, showcase case studies of your company’s
competitors implementing customised, flexible benefits plans and their results.
This shows that competitors are winning the war for talent and it’s difficult for
management to stand by and watch.

If you don’t have a competitor’s case study, use case studies from similar
company sizes and industries.

03 Keep An Open Mind And Explore New Tools

There are many tools and platforms you can use to implement customised,
flexible benefits plans without having the administrative burden.

You can try exploring digital benefits platforms like Mednefits, where you or
HR professionals can manage all medical benefits at one portal and process
reimbursement in a few clicks.

Companies that have switched to a digital benefits platform said they have
reduced the manual work, paperwork, and costs while being able to make the
most out of their budget.

22
Chapter 3:
what’s next
Top priority for employee benefits this year

Overall

Understand Measure the

employees' needs 25%
to provide more
36% effectiveness of
existing benefits
attractive benefits packages

Finding creative Implement

ways to reduce the 25% customised benefits 15%
cost of benefits packages

BASE (N=200)

Companies are prioritising understanding most companies are at the stage of

employees' needs to provide more attractive understanding and gathering data. We
benefits. This is primarily driven by the foresee that once the companies have
unsurety of whether employees would gathered and analysed the data, strategised
appreciate the flexible benefits. the plan, and got the management approval,
their top priority will be implementing the
Therefore, measuring the effectiveness of new customised, flexible benefits packages.
existing benefits packages is also one of the
top 3 priorities. Companies need to know At the same time, companies are aware of
what is happening in their employee benefits the rising healthcare costs and it’s difficult
landscape, so they can make wise decisions to provide a wide range of medical benefits
based on accurate data, not assumptions. to everyone. Therefore, companies are also
prioritising finding creative ways to reduce
With a lack of understanding, this explains the cost of benefits without compromising
why implementing customised benefits their talent retention, attraction, and
packages is the least priority because engagement goals.

23
5 tips to understand your employees’ needs

01 Conduct Regular Employee Benefits Satisfaction Surveys

Surveys can determine how your employees feel about current benefits and
forecast future needs, allowing your company to customise, adapt, and build
suitable plans. Some benefits platform providers like Mednefits can share data
usage stats, offering insights into which benefits are serving your workforce.

Download the benefits satisfaction survey here to get started.

02 Set Up Dedicated Communication Channels

Your company can establish multiple communication channels to share
benefits-related information. This can be done in weekly meetings or monthly
e-newsletter. You can also create open Q&A sessions where any employees
can join and ask questions about benefits.

Track Awareness And Utilisation

03 Track awareness and utilisation. If awareness is low, educate the employees
and run campaigns. If the utilisation is low despite high awareness, check the
utility and ease of use of the benefit. Act accordingly. If both awareness and
utilisation are low, start with building awareness.

Review Usage Data From Benefits Providers

04 Review data from your benefits providers to get a good understanding of usage.
Provide an educational series by inviting your various benefits providers to host a
session going into more depth about what they offer. For example, if your employees
aren't taking advantage of their 401(k) benefit, invite a financial adviser to come
speak to employees, encourage participation, and answer questions.

Highlight A Benefit Each Month

05 Highlight a benefit each month or quarter through your most effective employee
communication channel, and share different ways this benefit can be useful to
employees. From there, monitor any changes with the participation of this benefit
and assess whether or not it is useful to your current employee base.

24
Ways of reducing cost of healthcare spending

Overall

Is the company seeking

new ways to reduce cost of Ways of Reducing Healthcare Spending
healthcare spending?

6% Flexible Benefits 64%

Spending Account
22%

Digital Benefits 45%

73% Platform

Yes, and actively doing so Co-Payment 34%

Yes, but unsure where to start
No

BASE (N=200)

Organisations are actively seeking innovative • Allows your employees to take control of their
ways to reduce the cost of corporate healthcare own benefits with more choices
spending, particularly in Malaysia. The top 3 • Helps control costs without compromising on
ways that companies have employed include: benefits options

1. Implementing flexible benefits

• Makes better decisions based on the company’s
benefits usage and activities.
spending accounts
2. Adopting digital benefits platforms
The use of data to improve benefits decision-
3. Increasing co-payments making is going to be a major trend in 2022 and
the coming years. In fact, almost half of the
What is a Flexible Benefits Spending Account? employees10 wished they were given access to an
A flexible benefits spending account is a pool online platform with decision support tools to help
of funds allocated for an employee’s benefits guide their selection of benefits.
package. Say, the employee has $5,000 to spend
on GP, wellness, dental, optical, transportation, What is Co-Payment?
internet, etc. It’s up to them how they want to Co-payment is a form of cost-sharing contributed
spend their accounts. by the employee and employer. Depending on
the company, this pool of funds can be set aside
What is a Digital Benefits Platform? yearly or monthly and the employee’s share is
A digital benefits platform offers automated, deducted from their paycheck. Any unused fund
affordable, and accessible solutions to manage can be refunded or prorated to the following
your employee benefits, claims, tracking, and year or month. This method, however, is not
more. Some of the benefits these platforms recommended for companies looking to attract
provide are: talents with benefits.

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 By Country

Is the company seeking new ways to reduce cost of healthcare spending?

7% 5% Yes, and actively

doing so
15%
28% Yes, but unsure
where to start

No

65% 80%

Singapore (N=100) Malaysia (N=100)

Ways of Reducing Healthcare Spending

58%
Flexible Benefits
Spending Account 70%

Digital Benefits 36%

Platform 54%

41%
Co-Payment
27%

Singapore (N=100) Malaysia (N=100)

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 By Company Type

Is the company seeking new ways to reduce cost of healthcare spending?

6% 6% Yes, and actively

doing so
16%
Yes, but unsure
23% where to start

No

71% 78%

SME (N=150) MNC (N=50)

Ways of Reducing Healthcare Spending

60%
Flexible Benefits
Spending Account 75%

Digital Benefits 40%

Platform 57%

34%
Co-Payment
34%

SME (N=50) MNC (N=150)

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5 tips to reduce medical benefits costs

01 Switch To Cheaper Healthcare Benefits

You could be overpaying your healthcare insurance plan, or your employees
are under utilising the coverage. Either way, it's similar to buying products that
you don't need.

What you can do to save money on corporate health insurance is by

determining how much your employees are actually spending and using the
data to decide on cheaper healthcare alternatives such as a lower insurance
premium, self-funded reimbursement, or a flexible pay-as-you-use plan.

02 Conduct Regular Health Talks & Campaigns

Increasing the awareness about the importance of health and simple tips to live
healthier can be a great way to control long-term medication costs. Consider
inviting medical experts and coaches to support your employees live a healthy
lifestyle. You can also conduct themed campaigns such as “Eat 5 colours a day”
or “Walk 5,000 steps” and create games out of it.

03 Track Awareness And Utilisation

Cancer and cardiovascular diseases are known to be the two most costly
diseases. The good news is, you can implement wellness programs to prevent
your employees from contracting these two diseases and other chronic
diseases.

Gym memberships, company-organised fitness classes, smoking cessation

programs, public transit allowances, healthy snacks, and napping capsules are
some examples of wellness programs you can adopt in your benefits plan.

The idea of wellness programs is to create a healthy environment so the

employees can be healthy and reduce the number of trips to clinics and
hospitals.

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04 Provide flexible benefits spending plans
Not every employee will use benefits the same way across the board. Gen Xers
typically use more benefits for ageing parents and children healthcare. Gen
Zers generally prefer lifestyle benefits. Thus, it doesn’t make financial sense for
companies to allocate the same budget for all benefits for everyone.

Therefore, companies are switching to a flexible benefits spending plan to allow

their employees choose what benefits to use within a set pool of funds. This way,
the benefits can be fully utilised without breaking the budget.

05 Switch to a digital benefits platform

Some digital benefits platforms like Mednefits allow you to create your own
benefits plan according to your employees’ needs and company budget. The best
part is that you only have to pay for what your employees have claimed.

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Final thoughts
What’s the current benefits landscape, how it’ll transform and
what challenges are in the way

Current
• Most organisations are administering employee medical benefits via insurance, self-managed
and third-party administrators.

• The average amount spent on medical benefits is $528.

• The top 3 types of medical benefits provided are hospitalisation, general practitioner and
health screening.

• Organisations are mostly concerned with designing a flexible benefits plan, increasing
premiums, and administrative burdens.

• What is on the top of mind is understanding employees’ needs, finding creative ways to
reduce costs, and measuring the effectiveness of existing benefits plans.

Future
• Organisations are adopting flexible benefits spending accounts, digital benefits platforms,
and increasing co-payments.

• The average amount spent is expected to increase due to increasing healthcare costs. But some
of the costs can be mitigated by using flexible benefits. digital benefits platforms, or co-payments.

• In the coming years, organisations will work on wellness, mental health and flexible work benefits.

• Organisations are looking into digital benefits platforms to reduce premiums,

administrative burdens, and implementing flexible benefits with ease.

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Methodologies
We surveyed 200 HR decision-makers who have significant influence over HR-related decisions of
companies that currently do provide employee medical benefits. Half of them are from Singapore and
the other half are from Malaysia. They must be working in a company with an employee size of 10 to 250
employees or more than 250 employees, and cannot be working for any insurance company, brokers or
banking institution. Within the 100 participants in a country, 75% of the participants work in a company
with an employee size of 10 to 250 employees and 25% of the participants work in a company with more
than 250 employees. The survey was performed in March 2022.

Participant demographics
Respondent & Company Profile

Gender (N=200) Working Status(N=200)

Male
Employed
58% full-time
83%

Self-
employed
14%

Female Employed
part-time
42% 3%

Country (N=200) Age (N=200)

8%
8%
Singapore : 100 18 - 25 years old
26 - 40 years old
41 - 55 years old
56%
Malaysia : 100 28% Above 55 years

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 Industry (N=200)

Accounting 6%

Architecture 2%

Communications, Media & Entertainment 3%

Construction 10%

Consumer Goods / FMCG 5%

Design 2%

Education 10%

Engineering 13%

Legal Services 3%

Manufacturing 22%

Market Research 1%

Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations 1%

Pharmaceutical 2%

Retail and Wholesale Trade 14%

Others 9%

Company Employee Size (N=200)

10 - 50 30%
SME:
75% 51 - 100 23%

101 - 250 22%

251 - 500 7%
MNC:
25% 501 - 1000 8%

More than 1000 10%

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Distribution of
Overall (N=200)
employee type
Overall, 3 out of 5 Avg. proportion 62% 38%
employees in SMEs as well
as MNCs are white collar 3%
20%
(locals). This holds true for 13%
both the geographies –
Singapore and Malaysia. 29%
34%

33%

0% - 20% 23%

21% - 40%
16%
41% - 60% 28%
3%
61% - 80%
White Collar Blue Collar
81% - 100% (Locals) (Foreigners on employment pass)

By Country

Avg.

White Collar
(N=100) 2% 13% 34% 29% 22% 63%
(Locals)
(N=100) 3% 18% 32% 29% 18% 61%

Blue Collar (N=100) 33% 20% 32% 13% 2% 37%

(Foreigners on
employment
pass) (N=100) 23% 26% 36% 12% 3% 39%

By Company Type
Avg.

White Collar SME (N=150) 2% 15% 33% 29% 21% 62%

(Locals)
MNC (N=50) 3% 16% 34% 30% 18% 62%

Blue Collar SME (N=150) 27% 25% 33% 13% 3% 38%

(Foreigners on
employment
pass) MNC (N=50) 32% 18% 36% 12% 2% 38%

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About mednefits
We believe that every company,
regardless of size or industry, has
the responsibility to take care of
its employees. That’s why we built
Mednefits – a company that focuses
on building the future infrastructure of
employee benefits to help businesses
take care of their employees. We
are focused on making healthcare
more accessible and affordable for
companies of all sizes, from startups
to large enterprises.

Mednefits was founded in 2014 by

Chris, Hadiyanto and Clarence when
they saw how SMEs were struggling
with healthcare benefits. The founders
wanted to find a way to make it easier
for companies of all sizes to get access
to employee benefits, and thus they
started Mednefits.

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Useful resources
1. Ultimate Guide To Employee Benefits (Bookmark this as
your one-stop resource)

2. What you should know about employee benefits policy -

Malaysia | Singapore

3. Types of employee benefits that attract and retain talents -

Malaysia | Singapore

4. 10 innovative ways to attract and retain Gen Z talents

5. A 5-step guide to discover the most important employee

benefits in your organisation

6. 3 reasons why your employee benefits are not used (and

how to maximise the ROI)

7. How to communicate employee benefits to your team

8. How to choose the right employee benefits software for

your company

9. [Template] Employee Benefits Sentiment Finding

10. [Template] Employee Benefits Satisfaction Survey

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References
1. 5 Awesome Job Benefits That Attract Quality Candidates,
Glassdoor, 2021.

2. 4 Trends Changing the Way You Hire and Retain Talent

in 2020, LinkedIn, 2020.

3. Employee Happiness Index 2019, Benify, 2019.

4. Speech By Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister Of State

For Health, Ministry of Health, 2019.

5. Growing focus on mental health at workplace as Covid-19

pandemic takes toll, The Straits Times, 2021.

6. Mental Health Problems In Malaysia, Minister of Health

Malaysia, 2016.

7. Traditional Chinese Medicine, World Scientific, 2016.

8. The World Health Organisation Gives the Nod to Traditional

Chinese Medicine. Bad Idea, Scientific American, 2019.

9. Medical reimbursements and salary during sick leave,

Ministry of Manpower.

10 Inflection Point, Guardian Life, 2021.

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mednefits.com
[email protected]

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