Employer Action Code: Monitor

Health insurance is the most valued employee benefit across all age groups, a joint survey by Towers Watson and MDS, a Portuguese insurance broker, finds.

Key Details

The survey canvassed 63 companies from various business sectors, mostly multinationals employing between 100 and 500 employees.

Key findings include:

  • Health insurance is the benefit that nearly all employers provide and is the benefit that is valued most highly by employees in all age groups.
  • Pension plans are provided by over two-thirds of companies, and the majority are defined contribution plans. Although it is one of the most highly valued benefits by employees over age 50, little interest is shown by employees at younger ages.
  • 13% of the companies surveyed operate a flexible benefits program for their employees. About half of the companies participating in this survey said they were interested in implementing a flexible benefits program, with the majority considering it only in the long term. A third of companies said they had no plans to develop a program.

Employer Implications

The survey results suggest companies are changing the way they provide benefits to their employees. Cost control is increasingly important for both companies and their employees, and significantly impacts the selection of benefits and how the cost of those benefits is shared.

For more information, read the report, Market Survey on Employee Benefits 2011.