[0:00]Hello everyone. I hope you all are doing great today. This is your Eman and I brought you all another interesting episode for this podcast that mostly target my overseas audience.
[0:11]Especially who are currently present in GCC or thinking or planning to work in GCC countries in future. Well, let me start this podcast by adding a fact. Did you know that many employees leave their job not because of salary, but because of poor benefits? Well, you know, it's such a surprising thing, because poor benefits and GCC countries don't go together, right? Well, but that's a reality we cannot change. So today, we will discuss how companies choose the best employee benefits provider in the GCC countries. To begin with, I would like to discuss what employee benefits are. They include health insurance, retirement plans, wellness programs, and other services that support employees and their families. These benefits are extremely important because they influence employee motivation, their satisfaction, and retention. To understand well, let me name the countries that are included in GCC. The first is Qatar, Saudi Arabia, then Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, and Oman. In these countries, employers are often responsible to provide health insurance for employees. So in this podcast, we will explore why employee benefits matter, the key factors companies should consider when selecting a benefits provider. So before we start, I would like to invite Momen and Farah to have a great discussion and understand the importance of this topic. Hello Momen and hello Farah, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for taking out your time. So today, as you both know our topic is choosing the best employee that gives you the best benefits in the GCC countries. Well, Momen, I would like your opinion I would like to know your opinion why employee benefits are important. Assalamu Alaikum. Let me introduce myself at the beginning. My name is Mohan Jaer Usman and I'm someone who's really into the compensation and benefit field as it one of the most important areas in HR management in general. So, today, I received this invite for the podcast and I directly accepted it because it's very interesting. It's a very modern podcast. And thankful for that. So, the topic that we picked is a very modern topic that's interconnected to the market. It's not those past topics or outdated topics. It's a very modern, very important one that needs to be discussed in detail. So the question was like, why you believe that employee benefits matter, right? The first thing that you have to realize that the GCC market is a completely different market from other markets. It's a very unique with a different characteristics from other region. It's the place where a massive number of qualified people compete together in a very small market which make it a very complicated market that has a unique way to adapt and adjust to deal with.
[3:35]It's not a place where you can just implement the normal general tactics or methods to attract those qualified people. So, employee benefits are very crucial and important because they directly affect how employees feel about their job and their overall experience at the work. When companies provide strong benefits such as health insurance, wellness program or even requirement planning, what the employee will feel? The employee will feel they are valued, supported and protected. This sense of security makes a big difference in how they view their work place. So, protection is the most crucial thing that every employee has to feel because when you feel protected, you can be protected, you know, because like you are working now and you feel like whatever surgery happened, whatever, a bad things happened to me, how I'm I going able to cover that. That will be like a source of stress, a massive source of stress. But when you have a health insurance will be like, no, I have to go to the doctor for this thing. I have to go to the doctor for this check up because, you know, I already have a health insurance. That's comfortability doesn't come from the sky. It comes from very specific reasons. So the research also shows that good benefits increase motivation and improve performance when employees are not worried about their health with the future. They tend to focus more being consistently better and more productive. Another crucial important, isn't really a retention. Benefits play a major role in whether employees decide to stay or to leave your company. For instance, imagine an employee working in a company that offers limited health insurance. If that employee received another job offer with a similar with similar job title, job description and stuff like that. So, he will go for the better benefits for the better health care for sure. Especially in the long term, it will be much better for him. So, your turnover percentage will increase as an employee, which will cause you a problem in the future. That's something that we see a lot these days. Many employees consider benefits just as important as the salary. Absolutely, absolutely. Many employees these days evaluate the full benefits package before accepting the job. It's one of the most modern criteria to that employees use in job evaluation before they make a decision. They see the contract, they will be interested what benefits they will get in the long term and that will give them the feel of security. That's why people look for jobs. They need to feel secure. It's not just the base salary that's attractive anymore. You have to offer a nice benefits package to attract employee in a very competitive market that we previously described. Yes, thank you so much, Momen. Farah, I want to know about your side too. Thank you so much Iman for inviting us to your broadcast. Firstly, I am Farah Al-Fawal and one of Iman's compensation and benefit colleague. So yes, Iman, as you asked, I would like to add why the labor market in the GCC is unique. So, let me mention one key feature in the large number of the expatriate workers. And many companies actually employ people from different countries. And employers usually responsible for providing the health insurance. On the other hand, there's another challenge which is health care regulations are constantly changing. Actually, governments are introducing a stricter rules to ensure employees receiving a proper coverage. So, if a company failed to follow these regulations, what would happen? They might face a legal issues or even financial penalties. That sounds like a big responsibility. Exactly, Iman. So let me add an example. Imagine a company in Qatar choosing a provider. And if that provider does not meet the local regulations, you know, this could lead to penalties or a problem with the employee visa. So that's why companies must choose a providers who understand the GCC health care system and laws. It's very important. Right. So, uh, thank you so much Momen and Farah for giving your point of views. So now let's look at the most important factors companies should consider. For me, I believe cost and value. Cost is really important, but choosing the cheapest option is not always the best decision. What I think that companies must evaluate the overall value including service, quality and coverage. Like give let me give you all an example. Like a cheaper plan may have limited hospital coverage, which can create problems for employees, because you never know what kind of health issue an employee could be dealing with. The other thing I believe is quite important is provider network strength. Employees need easy access to hospitals and clinics because imagine an employee in Doha needing urgent medical care. If their provider has strong hospital network, they can get their treatment quickly. But if the network is very weak, they may struggle to find care. Uh, coming back to this point, in my personal view, that that it will be a massive source of pressure. As the limited access to the health insurance or coverage can make a simple a very simple medical issue. Feel like much more complicated and much more expensive and it will start to make a headache, you know? It will make the employee feel frustrated all the time. Exactly, and it can reduce trust in the company. And the third thing is I would include is digital technology, because today many providers offer digital platforms and mobile apps. Employees can, you know, check the coverage, they can submit claims and track the approvals online. Yes, Iman. Allow me to add an example based on that. Some providers even allow the employees to instantly see which hospitals are covered through an app. That makes the process much easier and more transparent. Uh, the fourth thing that I would like to add is risk management and provider stability. You know, the companies must choose the providers that are financially stable and reliable. Because this will ensure the employees receive consistent services without any interruptions. Yes, Momen. The research gap and future work. This is one of the most important, crucial findings that we collected from our research and that was something really surprising for me. Is that there is still limited academic work and research on benefits provider selection in the GCC region. In a very in such a very competitive market, in such a very important market into the international show, there is a limitation of academic work. That's something really weird for me. So the most existing series tend to focus on compensation or employee retention separately rather than connecting them together in a one framework to be discussed to be analyzed. Uh because of this, like there is a clear massive gap or a noticeable gap, we can say, how organization in the GCC can consistently evaluate and choose between the benefits providers? To address this gap successfully, our project aims to develop a structured evaluation score card. This tool will help companies compare different providers in a more clear and organized way so they can the best can they can come up with the best decision in the long term. The goal or the ultimate goal is to support a better decision making in the short and in the long term improving efficiency. Efficiency is one of the crucial criteria and ultimately like help organization institution in a public or in a private sector to get stronger and stronger while being effective in terms of employee benefits.
[12:54]Okay, thank you. Yes, Farah. So, as we're moving toward the end of this interesting podcast, I would like to conclude that choosing the right benefits provider is not just an administrative task. It's actually a strategic decision. That's why employee benefits influence satisfaction, productivity and retention. Actually in the GCC, where employers are responsible for health care, this decision becomes even more important. That's why companies should carefully evaluate providers based on cost and value, service quality, health care network, digital technology, financial stability. Because when organizations make a smart decision, they create a workplace where employees feel supported and motivated. So, finally, in the end, employee benefits are not just a cost, they're actually an investment in people and long-term success. Thank you so much Farah for your conclusion, and I think that this will be end of our podcast. Thank you so much to all our audience, and I hope that you really like our topic, and I hope that this was helpful for our overseas audience. See you in the next podcast. Till then, farewell.
