Seagate Technology to reduce employee medical costs

EXCLUSIVE: Seagate Technology says co-sharing medical costs with staff will reduce the annual employee medical inflation level for its Singapore operation to 2-3% in 2012.

In 2008, the global producer of hard drives experienced medical inflation of 10.6%.

In 2010, it became one of the first companies in Singapore to introduce co-sharing. Most Singaporean employers offering a private top-up to the state health system pay the full cost.

Sign up to our newsletters

Receive news and guidance on a range of HR issues direct to your inbox

Enter your email address(Required)

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Employee Benefits – but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

The changes were tough to communicate to staff, but Seagate believes healthcare is a joint responsibility between the individual and the organisation.

Molly Ang, executive director of compensation and benefits at Seagate Technology, said: “It was not a cost-reduction programme, it is about reducing increases. It is what HR can do for the business.”

“It reduces unnecessary visits to the GP and specialists. Some 98% of staff spend within the limit. They are more mindful about using their benefits than before. Hopefully, it will change the mindset of entitlement.”

Seagate, which employs 50,000 staff worldwide, introduced co-sharing in its Thailand operation in 2010 and plans to roll it out in Malaysia and then China.

Read more about international benefits