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From Japan to the US, and many places in-between, employee healthcare costs keep rising, as the talent skills gap grows simultaneously.
Where in the world? Employers in several Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan, are figuring out how to enhance their benefits packages without breaking the bank, according to the WTW Benefits Trends Survey of roughly 2,000 employers.
Among the survey’s findings, health and wellbeing are the biggest benefits priorities for Asia Pacific (APAC) employers. Roughly 50% of those surveyed said they want to improve health and mental health benefits over the next three years. As more workers age, they’re also taking care of their aging parents in APAC, so one-in-three employers said that caregiver leave will be added to their benefits packages.
Even as employers enhance their healthcare offerings for employees, the cost is still a headache, according to the survey. Some 38% anticipate using “targeted programs” to help with expensive health conditions, like women’s health and cardiovascular disease. Employers will try to save money by removing some benefits, based on employee needs, although the report did not specify which benefits could end.
While competition for talent has been a steady driver of benefits strategy, inclusion and diversity fell off the top five in this year’s survey, replaced by the rising cost of benefits and financial pressures.
“Employers in APAC markets face diverging priorities. They will need to recalibrate, doing less of what does not work and more of what does,” Royston Tan, head of health and benefits, Asia Pacific, at WTW, said in a statement. “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.”
Satellite view. Employers in the US are also navigating rising healthcare costs, which were the main cost impacting benefit strategies in 2025, HR Brew reported previously. Some companies are reconsidering which vendors they use for their insurance carriers or pharmacy benefit managers for maximum value.
And as expensive treatments like GLP-1 medications (to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity) add more costs for employers, some may have to put the burden on their employees, CNN reported.
Beth Umland, director of research at Mercer, told CNN that some employers may be at their breaking point. “Employers are thinking, we’re at a point where we can’t do another year of not passing along some of the cost increases.”