UAE employers can't compete on salary, so they're adding will planning, wellness perks; Here's how

Salary hikes in the UAE are modest, around four per cent, and employers know it. So they're competing elsewhere.

Companies across the country are expanding employee benefits well beyond traditional health insurance and travel allowances, piling on mental health support, flexible work arrangements, wellness allowances, learning budgets, and increasingly, financial and legal planning services. The goal is straightforward: hold on to good people when pay rises alone won't do it.

"The real story isn't that employers are getting more generous; it's that they can't win on salary anymore. Pay rises are modest, and people aren't job-hopping the way they used to, so the competition has moved to benefits that actually build trust," Sanjeev Giri, head of sales and operations at Adecco UAE, told Khaleej Times.

Financial well-being moves front and centre

Giri pointed to financial well-being as one of the fastest-growing areas in the benefits space.

"In today's workplace, the most meaningful benefits are those that address employees' overall well-being and long-term security. Employers are expanding their offerings to include mental health support, flexible and hybrid work, wellness allowances, and structured learning budgets. One of the fastest-growing areas is financial well-being," he said.

Part of that shift is being enabled by policy. The UAE government has allowed private sector companies to invest employees' end-of-service gratuity, meaning employers can now offer alternatives to traditional lump-sum structures, letting funds grow rather than simply sit.

Will drafting and succession planning

Perhaps the most telling sign of how far benefits have evolved is the growing uptake of will drafting and succession planning services. A largely expatriate workforce, many of whom own property, have families and hold cross-border financial commitments in the UAE, is driving demand for legal preparedness that employers are now beginning to provide.

"A small but growing number of organisations, particularly larger firms based in financial hubs such as the DIFC, are beginning to offer these services, largely because the workforce here is heavily expatriate and people worry about protecting their families and assets in the UAE. While the offering is not yet widespread, it is viewed as a high-impact, low-cost benefit that signals a deeper level of employer care and commitment," said Giri.