Global Benefits Management: The India Perspective
Globalization has given new meaning and dimension to corporates in India. Unlike before, many Indian firms have embarked on the global path, leading to the emergence of Indian multinational companies. Indian industries have crossed domestic frontiers and established a credible presence in markets abroad in a very short time. As Indian employers expand their operations globally, they are required to look at the scope and level of benefits they provide to their local and overseas workforce. Indian multinationals would face several challenges in delivering high-quality employee benefits, and while many of these challenges are similar to those experienced by domestic organizations, they are often intensified by decentralized operations and country-specific regulations.
Organizations need to take local regulations and experience into account, but they also want to create a holistic global or regional strategy to incorporate into their benefits plans. Bundling them under regional and global arrangements reduces workload, optimizes cost impact, and ensures consistency in governance. Essentially, there is merit in organizations that manages worldwide employee benefits risks, with global, regional, and local control.
A global benefits strategy can go a long way to mitigate health risks faced by employees, and engenders confidence and satisfaction in the workforce. It is an indispensable tool for companies that are expanding their geographic footprint.
Do you know?
a) Your current annual spend on benefits?
b) The role of your company’s benefit policies in attracting and retaining talent?c) You need to have a robust mechanism in place to manage legislative changes globally?
Additionally, from benefits perspective, the questions and fact checks would be even more difficult to answer, like below
a) Do you have consistent benefits offering globally?
b) How do I drive a common employee experience globally?
c) Have you created technology-driven synergies from employee benefits globally?
d) How can you leverage size to manage and optimise costs?
Fundamentally, the requirements could vary from basic strategic support in key geographies to managing entire benefit management capabilities globally. However, given the varied global healthcare spending, there is a need to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and provide value to clients. Organizations that have employees outside the home country face unique benefits issues.
How a Global Benefits Program can support?
Global Benefit Program for Indian organization can be designed from both a global perspective and a local or regional perspective. It includes the following:
a) Global services perspective
- Global Benefits strategy development and implementation
- Governance framework
- Co-ordination of regional brokers network
- Consultative use of regional data
- Proactive updates on trends and issues
b) Regional and Local services perspective
- International benefits desk at each geography
- Annual planning, renewals and policy administration, and claims experience analysis
- Benchmarking commentaries
- Carrier negotiations
- Ensure that collaboratively, decisions made at a local/regional level are aligned at the global and strategic level as well
The objective of a Global Benefits Program
A Global Benefits Program would help any organization manage their global benefit spends and ensure:
A) Better control – with better visibility over benefits and costs
B) Consistent employee experience – which will also make employee offerings meet their requirements
C) Costs savings – Leverage the economies of scale with pooling insurance partners
D) Overall Efficiency and governance – through a single point of contact and robust benefits philosophy framework