Global Employee Benefits: How to Attract & Retain Talent in 2025

Looking to attract and retain global talent? 

Offering tailored benefits to your employees is the golden ticket. 

Global employee benefits are non-wage incentives that acknowledge and address the diverse needs of an international workforce. Some examples include paid time off, company health insurance, occupational pensions, and remote work stipends. 

Let’s explore various global employee benefits you can offer and how to manage them.

Why Offer Global Employee Benefits to Your Team?

According to Metlife's 2024 Employee Benefit Trends Study, 73% of employees would be more likely to stay with their current employer if they had access to a broader range of benefits.

Offering a comprehensive benefits package to your employees wherever they are comes with several advantages, such as: 

• Attract Skilled Global Talent: In a competitive job market, standout benefits packages give you a hiring edge to attract high-calibre global talent — making you an employer of choice. 

• Enhance Employee Satisfaction: Better benefits mean happier teams. This translates to more productivity, higher employee engagement, and, ultimately, improved retention.

• Manage Compliance & Risk: With a global team, you must adhere to local labour laws to avoid legal issues. For example, you must provide a workplace pension scheme to your UK team. 

• Cultivate an Inclusive Company Culture: By offering benefits that respect diverse traditions and lifestyles, you actively foster a workplace where everyone feels supported and connected.

Now that we've covered the why, let's discover what to include in your global employee benefits package.

What Are the Different Types of Global Employee Benefits You Can Offer?

Any global employee benefits package will typically be a mix of: 

• Statutory benefits

• Supplementary benefits

• Fringe benefits

Let’s discuss each one quickly:

A. Statutory Benefits (Mandatory Benefits)

Statutory benefits are legally required benefits that you must provide, with specific requirements varying by country based on labour laws.

Usually, statutory benefits include essentials like healthcare, pensions, paid time off, and unemployment insurance.

Some benefits, like a state pension scheme, could be part of the country’s social security program. 

Mandatory benefits are typically funded through employee, employer, and state contributions.

As an employer, you may also be responsible for processing contributions, submitting them to the concerned authority, maintaining accurate records, etc.

Let’s look at some common statutory benefits globally:

• Paid Time Off (PTO): Your employees can take time off while receiving pay. Globally, this includes annual leave, sick leave, and personal days, which are essential to maintain work-life balance and employee well-being.

• Parental Leave: This mandatory benefit provides paid time off for your employees who become parents, either through the birth or adoption of their child. This includes paid maternity and paternity leave periods.

• Workers' Compensation: It’s a form of insurance offering wage and medical coverage for job-related injuries, protecting you and your employees from financial burdens.

• Unemployment Insurance: It’s temporary financial support for your workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It provides economic stability as they search for new employment.

• Social Security and State Pensions: These government-supported programs provide benefits like retirement income, medical coverage, or disability payments to eligible individuals on your team.

B. Supplementary Benefits

Supplementary benefits are optional benefits you can offer your employees — going beyond the legally mandated ones.

The goal?

To enhance your workers' overall compensation package and keep them satisfied and motivated. 

Some popular supplementary benefits globally include:

• Occupational Health Insurance: Additional health coverage beyond statutory plans, often with higher coverage limits and specialised services.

• Life Insurance & Assurance: If your employee passes away, life insurance typically pays out a tax-free lump sum to nominated beneficiaries, providing financial security to their dependants.

• Retirement Plan: Tax-advantaged accounts help your employees save for retirement, strengthened by your contributions to support long-term financial planning.

• Dental Insurance: Covers preventive services like cleanings and X-rays, as well as restorative treatments such as fillings, crowns, and orthodontics.

• Vision Insurance: Pays for your employees' routine eye exams and helps offset the costs of glasses, contacts, and corrective procedures.

• Disability Insurance: Replaces a portion of income if your employee cannot work due to an injury or illness, covering periods beyond statutory sick pay. It can be a statutory benefit in some regions.

• Mental Health Benefits: Gives your employees access to counselling, therapy, and treatment programs, often with lower or no co-pays than standard health plans.

• Childcare Stipends: Monetary assistance to help working parents on your team afford childcare costs like daycare or nannies.

• Remote Work Stipends: Reimbursements for your employees’ home office equipment, internet, and utilities to enable productive remote working.

• Learning & Development Assistance: Tuition reimbursement and training courses to build your team’s skills, benefiting current/future roles.

C. Fringe Benefits

Fringe benefits are additional non-cash perks aimed at attracting and retaining talent. 

Unlike supplementary benefits, which enhance core benefits like health or retirement plans, fringe benefits offer non-essential luxuries to improve your employees' experience and workplace satisfaction.

• Company Cars: You provide vehicles for your employees' business and personal use, often with fuel and maintenance covered. This fringe benefit is handy for workers who drive frequently for work.

• Travel Expense Reimbursement: Covering costs like flights and accommodation for your employees’ business travel.

• Meal Vouchers: Prepaid cards or discounts at restaurants/cafeterias to subsidise your employees' meal costs.

• Mobile Phone Plans: Your company can reimburse or directly pay your employees' mobile/cell phone bills. It’s a valuable benefit for employee roles that require constant communication and mobile access.

• Company Discounts: Your employees enjoy discounted rates on your products or services — a thoughtful perk that boosts brand loyalty and usage.

• Gym Memberships: Your company can subsidise or fully cover gym and fitness club fees to encourage employee wellness and support healthy lifestyles.

• Shopping Discounts: Your employees can access discounts from third-party retailers through corporate partnerships.

Examples of Employee Benefits Offered Across Different Countries

Here’s what the employee benefits landscape looks like for different countries:

1. United States

• Statutory Benefits: Includes Social Security, Medicare, and federally mandated unpaid family and medical leave. If you have employees working in the US, you must also contribute to unemployment insurance and workers' compensation programs.

• Supplementary Benefits: Commonly include health insurance, retirement savings plans (such as 401(k) plans), dental and vision insurance, and life insurance. You often offer these voluntarily to attract and retain employees.

2. United Kingdom

• Statutory Benefits: Includes primary healthcare under the National Health Service (NHS), statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity leave, and pension contributions through the UK’s auto-enrolment pension scheme.

• Supplementary Benefits: If you’re a UK-based employer, you can offer occupational medical insurance for additional coverage and enhanced parental leave benefits. You may also offer perks like gym memberships or company cars.

Here are additional resources for employers in the UK:

• Discover 23+ Employee Benefits to Offer your UK Team in 2025.

• If you’re a UK-based startup, here are the 8 key Employee Benefits UK Startup teams expect in 2025.

3. Ireland

• Statutory Benefits: As an Irish employer, you must contribute to Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI), which covers welfare benefits. Your employees are entitled to statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity leave, State Pension, and either a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) or an occupational pension.

• Supplementary Benefits: Common voluntary benefits in Ireland include private health insurance and life insurance. You may also enhance the employee benefits package with perks such as educational assistance, fitness memberships, or travel subsidies.

If you’re an Irish employer, check out these guides:

• Explore Ireland’s Employee Benefits landscape in detail.

• Find out 11 important Irish Startup Employee Benefits to boost your team's productivity and morale.

While global benefits offer several advantages, managing them can be challenging.

What Are the Challenges Employers Face While Managing Global Benefits?

Managing global employee benefits can present unique challenges to you and your HR teams:

• Navigating Legal Complexities: Each country has its own labour laws and regulations regarding employee benefits. Staying compliant requires ongoing research and potentially partnering with legal experts in each location.

• Catering to Diverse Cultural Needs: Employee needs and expectations for benefits vary significantly across cultures. A thriving global benefits program must be flexible and adaptable to cater to these differences.

• Cost Management & Competitiveness: Balancing the cost of offering competitive benefits across multiple countries can be tricky. Your company must find a way to attract talent while remaining financially prudent.

• Data Privacy Compliance: Data privacy laws differ by country. If you’re a multinational employer, you must comply with these regulations when collecting, storing, and transferring your employee benefits data globally. This might require additional security measures and protocols.

The good news?

You can overcome these challenges with the right global benefits management solution.

Effortless Global Employee Benefits Management With Kota

Kota is a cutting-edge software solution that simplifies global benefits management.

Partnering directly with trusted benefits providers across various countries, Kota delivers hand-picked, cost-effective benefits for your employees.

Moreover, our benefits plans comply with your employee’s local employment laws. 

What Employee Benefits Does Kota Support?

Our core offerings are the essentials every global benefits package needs:

• Health Insurance: Comprehensive coverage from partners like Vitality, Irish Life Health, and Allianz.

• Retirement Benefits: Secure your team’s future with robust plans from Smart Pension and Irish Life.

• Life Assurance (only available in Ireland): Peace of mind provided through Irish Life.

Here are some more reasons you’ll love Kota:

• Digital Hub: Kota's digital benefits hub acts as your central command centre, making it easy to manage your global benefits program from one place.

• Robust Data Security: With adherence to GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS, Kota ensures top-tier data security.

• Seamless Integration: Integrates smoothly with major HRIS and global payroll systems like Workday HCM, BambooHR, Gusto, and Personio, boosting your operational efficiency.
  

• Bring Your Own Benefits: You can add the benefits you already offer to Kota and enhance your existing program without any disruption.

How Can Employers Develop a Solid Global Employee Benefits Strategy?

Here's a roadmap to build a winning global employee benefits strategy for your team:

4 Key Considerations When Developing a Global Benefits Strategy

• Understand Your Employees’ Needs: Conduct surveys or focus groups to understand your global workforce's needs and priorities. What benefits are most important to them?

• Balance Cost and Value: Competitive benefits are essential, but staying financially responsible is equally important. Analyse the cost-benefit of different offerings to your team to find the perfect balance.

• Comply with Local Laws: Every country has its own rules. Research local labour laws and regulations regarding employee benefits to ensure your program is compliant. Legal hiccups can be costly!

• Cultural Considerations: A one-size-fits-all approach won't fly. Tailor your benefits plan to local cultural norms and expectations. Paid time off for family events might be more important in some regions than others.

With these considerations in mind, let’s build a comprehensive benefits strategy.

7 Simple Steps to Building a Global Employee Benefits Strategy

Follow these seven steps to curate your company’s global benefits:

Step 1: Know Your Team

Conduct a global workforce analysis to understand your team's demographics, locations, and needs.

Step 2: Understand Legal Landscape

Research local benefit requirements in each country you operate in. Consider partnering with local legal or HR experts.

Step 3: Prioritize & Budget

Determine what you can afford and prioritise benefits that offer the most value for your company and employees.

Step 4: Design a Flexible and Adaptable Benefits Program

Develop a program that you can easily adjust as your company scales and as laws and economic conditions change in your operating regions.

Step 5: Find the Right Partners

Choose reliable and experienced providers who specialise in benefits programs on a global scale. For example, you can use modern benefits platforms, like Kota, to streamline benefits administration and management.

Step 6: Take Employer of Record Support

Employer of Record (EORs) can manage legal and HR functions in foreign territories, reducing the burden on your internal teams and ensuring compliance with local laws.

Step 7: Communicate Well With Your Global Team

Ensure that all communications about benefits are clear, accessible, and translated as necessary to meet the needs of a diverse workforce. Good communication helps maximise usage and appreciation of the benefits offered.

What Are the Future Trends in Global Employee Benefits?

The global employee benefits landscape is evolving to align with the needs of a dynamic and geographically dispersed workforce.

The core theme: Automation, flexibility, and personalisation.

Here are four key trends to watch:

• Automation and Tech: Given the complexity of managing benefits globally, more companies are turning to sophisticated software to keep things smooth. This means faster, more accurate handling of your employees’ benefits no matter where they are.

• Rise of Mental Health Support: There's a growing focus on mental health, with companies expanding benefits to include more comprehensive mental health services and support programs for their employees.

• Flexible Working Options: Flexibility in work arrangements continues to be a priority, with many employers offering various remote working benefits to attract and retain talent in a competitive market.
  

• Customisation and Personalisation of Benefits: Flexible benefits plans are becoming the norm. This lets your employees pick what best suits their lifestyles.

4 FAQs About Global Employee Benefits

Have more questions about global benefits?

Let’s discuss. 

1. Which Country Has The Best Employee Benefits?

There isn't a single country with the "best" benefits, as preferences vary. 

That said, countries like Denmark and France rank among the top for their robust employee benefits. Denmark offers extensive parental leave and unemployment benefits, while France provides comprehensive healthcare. 

The key is to understand what your global workforce values!

2. How Do Currency Fluctuations Impact Global Employee Benefits and Compensation?

Currency fluctuations can affect the value of your employee's compensation. Their salary may buy less local goods and services if the local currency weakens. 

Similarly, the value of benefits denominated in that currency also decreases. For instance, this could mean your employees get less out of their healthcare plans.

The solution?Consider cost-of-living adjustments or other measures to review your employees’ salaries and benefits to help maintain their purchasing power.

3. Can Global Benefits Be Standardised Across All Countries, or Must They Be Customised Regionally?

While you can standardise some core benefits, most must be tweaked region by region. 

After all, different places have different laws and cultural expectations.

For example:

While the United States offers healthcare as a standard benefit, the government primarily covers healthcare through the National Health Service in the UK. 

So, offering private health insurance as a supplementary benefit in the UK is more about enhancing choice and giving access to faster care than providing primary services.

4. What Is the Role of an EOR in Global Employee Benefits?

An Employer of Record (EOR) supports global operations by managing legal and administrative tasks needed to employ staff abroad. 

EORs handle global payroll, compliance with regional labour laws, benefits administration, etc.

This role is vital for companies without local entities. It ensures that employees are well-compensated and legally protected while smoothly integrating global HR functions.

Extend Competitive Benefits to Your Global Teams with Kota

Tailored global benefits unlock a happier, more productive international workforce, boosting employee retention. 

But managing benefits across borders can be a pain.

Fortunately, Kota helps you offer regionally compliant benefits and cuts administrative costs – letting you focus on what matters – your global team's success.

So why wait? 

Join Kota to offer global employee benefits in minutes.