Of multinational companies currently offering, or planning to offer, global minimum benefits (43 percent), nearly three out of four congregate around four main offerings

DUBLIN, July 11, 2024 - Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today released findings from its 2024 Global Benefits Trends Study, which revealed that global minimum benefits standards are becoming the new normal for multinationals. 

The study gathered insights about the evolving roles, responsibilities and priorities of benefits professionals in multinational businesses amidst a constantly evolving global benefits landscape. It found continually rising benefits costs, shifting perceptions of employee mobility, pay transparency and equity mandates, the role of technology in supporting company culture and employee engagement are just a few forces at play.

“Organizations are implementing a suite of minimum benefit standards to provide coverage for key areas of need for employees,” said Celine Ng Tong, global benefits consultant at Aon. “We expect the prevalence of global minimum benefits standards to double over the next couple of years and that future areas of focus will be on programs supporting wellbeing, preventive health and mental health, along with sick leave.”

Key findings from the report show:

• Globally the most prevalent minimum benefit standards companies currently offer are employee assistance programs and life insurance (73 percent), maternity leave (70 percent), and paternity leave (69 percent). These standard offerings support strategic priorities such as diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), employee wellbeing, environmental, social and governance (ESG), holistic wellbeing, and the future of work, businesses are instituting global minimum standards for benefits programs.
• Globally, one-in-three multinationals are currently drafting and articulating their global benefits strategy and reviewing these annually. Growing trends like DEIB, employee wellbeing and ESG are contributing to this more frequent cadence.
• Strategies are becoming more detailed, with many businesses saying they have articulated detailed design principles (64 percent). However, we see a gap in the implementation of strategy at the local level, which leads to an inconsistent employee experience.
• Fifty nine percent of organizations surveyed say they are capturing the employee voice to guide strategic priorities.  
• Benefits communication is the greatest opportunity for global benefits. Many businesses from the study have stated that communication and increasing the perceived value of benefits is a consistent top strategic priority today. However, while businesses state that employee perception and understanding of benefits is a high priority, current efforts are underwhelming, uncoordinated and ineffective. Only 33 percent of businesses include guidelines on communication in their global framework. In addition, the vast majority of businesses (72 percent) are leaving communications to the local benefits teams, leading to an inconsistent experience around the world.

The survey was conducted from March to April 2024 and received 288 responses from participants in 31 countries across North America, EMEA, APAC and LATAM. The intent of the study was to understand the global benefits trends associated with multinationals around the world and to gather insights about the roles, responsibilities and evolving priorities of global benefits professionals in multinational companies. Read the full report here.

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