UAE employees want health insurance and flexible working hours, not free food, study finds

Employees across the UAE and Gulf region are increasingly valuing meaningful workplace benefits such as health insurance, wellbeing support, flexible working and paid leave over traditional office perks such as free food and lifestyle facilities.

The findings come from a new workplace study by NAVO, which examined thousands of employer and employee sources to identify the benefits most frequently discussed in today's workplace.

Health Benefits Rank as Top Workplace Priority

Health benefits emerged as the most frequently mentioned workplace perk, with 124 mentions in the study.

These benefits included medical insurance, private healthcare coverage and employer-funded medical support.

Wellbeing followed closely with 122 mentions, while flexibility and remote work recorded 111 mentions.

The findings indicate that employees are increasingly looking for benefits that directly support their health, financial security and work-life balance.

Wellbeing Becomes the Biggest Overall Theme

When mental health benefits were combined with broader wellbeing initiatives, the category generated 179 mentions, making it the largest overall theme in the research.

The wider wellbeing category includes initiatives designed to support employees' physical and mental health.

The growing emphasis on these benefits suggests that workplace wellbeing is becoming an increasingly important part of the employee experience.

Flexible Working Remains Highly Valued

Flexibility and remote work ranked third, with 111 mentions.

The category included:

Hybrid working arrangements
Remote work
Flexible working hours
Four-day working weeks
Work-from-home options
The results highlight the continued importance of giving employees greater control over where and when they work.

Paid Leave Supports Work-Life Balance

Paid leave ranked fourth with 101 mentions.

This included annual leave, parental leave, sick leave and other forms of paid time off.

The findings suggest that employees increasingly see adequate leave policies as an important part of maintaining a healthy balance between professional and personal responsibilities.

Financial Benefits and Career Development Also Matter

Financial and retirement benefits recorded 90 mentions, ranking fifth among the workplace benefits studied.

Professional development followed with 75 mentions, highlighting the importance of opportunities for employees to develop their skills and advance their careers.
Together, these benefits reflect growing employee interest in both immediate financial security and longer-term career growth.

Employees Speak Up About Desk Comfort

One of the study's notable findings was the difference between the benefits promoted by employers and those discussed directly by employees.

More than 80 per cent of conversations about standing desks and ergonomic workstations came from employees.

The category ranked eighth overall with 56 mentions, including 45 employee mentions compared with just 11 from employers.

Generic desks and chairs showed a similar pattern, with roughly four in five mentions coming from employees.

Employers Lead Discussions on Some Benefits

While employees were more likely to discuss workplace equipment and comfort, some benefits were primarily promoted by employers.

Professional development, mental health benefits and life and disability insurance were driven almost entirely by employers in the dataset.

This difference suggests that what companies advertise as a benefit does not always match the workplace issues employees talk about most.

Free Food Ranks Last

Despite free meals and snacks often being promoted as attractive workplace perks, they ranked last among the benefits analyzed, with only six mentions.

However, NAVO cautioned that fewer employee mentions do not necessarily mean a benefit is unimportant.

Some benefits, particularly health insurance and paid leave, may now be considered basic workplace expectations rather than perks employees feel the need to discuss frequently.

Study Includes UAE and GCC Workplace Data

NAVO analyzed 2,000 employer sources, including job advertisements, careers pages and LinkedIn posts, alongside more than 1,000 employee reviews and discussions from platforms such as Glassdoor, Indeed, Reddit, Blind and Fishbowl.

After removing duplicate and generic references, the final dataset contained 1,121 workplace perk mentions.

The employer sample included a significant UAE and GCC component, with 320 of the 2,000 employer sources coming from the UAE and wider Gulf region.

NAVO noted that the findings should be viewed as broader workplace trends rather than conclusions that apply exclusively to any single Gulf country.