Humphrey Mkwebu, Managing Director at Old Mutual Corporate

Remember March 2020? The first hard lockdown. Masks on, doors shut, workplaces scrambling. It’s easy to see why, in 2023, the employee benefits landscape reflected a work world in flux. Major shocks frequently produce overcorrections before a new equilibrium emerges.

Fast forward, and the latest 2025 Remchannel South African Employee Benefits Guide suggests we’re now entering this stabler state – from post-pandemic experimentation to a more structured, compliance-driven pay and benefits environment.

Now, in this new equilibrium, the questions most employers are asking are: How do we manage costs while remaining competitive? How do we offer deeply human interactions to create connection and cohesion? And how do we balance prescriptive mandates with an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that attracts and retains star performers?

How do these questions translate into the major trends we’re seeing in the new world of work?

Here are three big shifts we’re seeing from 2025 into 2026:

1. Health – over wealth?

In Remchannel’s 2025 Employee Benefits Guide, health took podium position – as ranked by the 60 companies we surveyed, collectively employing 404 423 individuals.

Global studies frequently attribute this preoccupation with wellbeing to younger generations, for example, Ernst & Young found that most Gen Zs prioritise physical and mental health as the greatest indicator of success (51%) – ranking health over wealth (42%).

2025 also saw an increase in new, niche specialised health benefits and programmes, including:

• Cancer screening: This coincides with a marked increase in early-onset cancers worldwide. In fact, one of the youngest breast cancer claimants in Old Mutual’s latest claims statistics was just 31 years old.

• Fertility programmes: The World Health Organization found that 1 in 6 people worldwide experiences infertility, raising awareness of the critical need for greater access to affordable, high-quality care.

• Perimenopause and menopause support: Globally, menopausal symptoms have caused 40% of women to miss work, 13% to quit work, and 15% to consider quitting, according to Korn Ferry and Vira Health research. Over a billion women will be in menopause by 2030, making support essential to bridge the “menopause penalty”.

2. Lower costs, greater productivity

We know that companies everywhere are grappling to manage costs while remaining competitive. In a global “battlefield” for scarce skills and top performers, retaining an attractive EVP is key – but factors like geopolitical uncertainty, trade wars and tariffs are necessitating critical cost-management exercises as well. Unsurprisingly, the Boston Consulting Group reported that cost management was the top strategic priority for global executives in 2025.

We’re seeing this being carried into the benefits landscape; organisations are bringing in stringent cost cutting measures, while seeking to amplify productivity through performance-based rewards and support wellbeing through valued benefits.

Some common cost-cutting measures included:

• Decline of sign-on bonuses: Just 28.3% of participants indicated they had paid a sign-on bonus; a further 46.7% said this would be a seldom occurrence, administered on an ad-hoc basis at management discretion.

• Overtime management emerging to control labour costs, with 11.7% of companies currently setting target ratios (Overtime Ratio: total overtime vs regular hours).

• A decline in traditional financial supports, such as guaranteed 13th cheques (62.8% in 2023 to 53.3% in 2025) and soft loans and cash advances (40.4% in 2023 to 31.7% in 2025).

Simultaneously, there’s a move towards more business and sustainability aligned financial wellness solutions, including performance-based incentives and Earned Wage Access (EWA), with EWA adoption already sitting at 20%.

3. More human time 

Remchannel research suggests that companies also appear to be looking for ways to promote more human interaction – cue for a more mature, optimised hybrid model? Fewer organisations are now offering hybrid models (86.2% in 2023 to 78.3% in 2025), and, of those that do, more are mandating three days in office: 40.7% in 2023 to 67.4% in 2025.

Right now, many organisations are walking a tightrope between prescriptive office mandates and an attractive EVP. Knowing how your business benchmarks is one of the best ways to stay competitive in a tight talent economy.

ENDS