Creating a global benefits strategy

A strong global benefits strategy is the key to attracting top talent and keeping your workforce satisfied. Quality employees know what their individual needs are and what their time is worth, so it’s important for businesses to show that they not only understand their team’s value, but they also know how to position themselves as an attractive place to work. As the term “global benefits strategy” suggests, creating a benefits package requires careful planning to ensure employees’ needs are met, no matter where they’re located.

What is a global benefits strategy?

A global benefits strategy is a plan that aligns the goals and resources of the employer with the wants and needs of the employees. The end goal is to provide a relevant, comprehensive, and cost-effective benefits program. Some of the many benefits of a global benefits strategy include:

• Ensuring the availability of a benefits plan that attracts and retains employees 
• Being able to stay competitive within your market 
• Keeping benefits relevant to staff, both now and in the future 

Imagine trying to harness these benefits without a strategy. You may have some successes, but it’s likely that you’ll overlook important details. 

Employer hurdles and challenges

There’s more to rolling out a global benefits strategy than making a few high-level decisions and hoping for the best. It’s important to anticipate potential roadblocks and devise a plan for dealing with them. These are some of the most common challenges of developing a global benefits strategy:

• Premium pricing: For example, the cost of health insurance—both for the employer and its employees—will vary from country to country. Understanding this upfront allows you to budget accordingly. 
• Sustainability: It’s true that your benefits package needs to meet your team’s current needs, but it must also be sustainable for the long term. Which benefits may need to be implemented or phased out as people’s needs evolve? How do your business projections compare to those forecasted needs? 
• Scaling with growth: As your business expands and brings in new team members, your HR needs become more advanced and challenging. Your global benefits strategy must be able to seamlessly keep pace through each growth cycle while still reflecting your values and budget. 

You can overcome these hurdles with the right approach. Understanding your goals and priorities makes it easier to recover from a setback and create a well-defined global benefits strategy. 

How to design a successful global benefits strategy

You don’t want just any global benefits strategy—you want a successful strategy that works for your unique employees. Here are some tips that can help:

• Consult with your workforce: Communication is the name of the game. Ask your employees what benefits are most important to them. Find out where you’ve come up short in the past. You may not be able to ask every employee for feedback, but a meaningful sample can provide enough data to put you on the right path. 
• Have a system for managing costs: You want to offer a comprehensive benefits package, but you must be realistic about the impact on your company’s finances. For example, health insurance premiums and transit expenses are likely to increase as the years pass. Do you have a plan for managing rising costs? 
• Get creative: Traditional employee benefits are fine but don’t stop there. Look for ways to think outside of the box and give employees empowering options. For instance, a health savings account (HSA) could make sense for workers who want to set aside pre-tax dollars for minor health expenses instead of paying into a more expensive policy. 

No two companies will take the same approach to designing a global benefits strategy, but these general tips are always helpful. 

Final Thoughts

Creating a global benefits strategy is a win-win. It benefits the whole company, as well as individual employees. 

At Oyster, we can help take your strategy to the next level. Our Oyster Health makes it easy to find the perfect global health benefits plan for team members in nearly 200 countries. This allows you to hire and manage global talent in the same manner as local candidates and employees. 

Our global employment platform is designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, hire, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.

Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.