Health insurance and flexible hours top UAE workers’ wish list, while free food ranks last.
Employees across the UAE and wider Gulf are increasingly prioritising health benefits, wellbeing, flexible working arrangements and paid leave over more eye-catching office perks such as free meals and lifestyle facilities, according to a new NAVO workplace study.
The research examined 2,000 employer sources, including job advertisements, careers pages and LinkedIn posts, alongside more than 1,000 employee reviews and discussions on platforms such as Glassdoor, Indeed, Reddit, Blind and Fishbowl. After removing duplicate and generic references, the final dataset contained 1,121 mentions of workplace perks.
Paid leave ranked fourth with 101 mentions, followed by financial and retirement benefits with 90 and professional development with 75.
Health and wellbeing dominate
Wellbeing emerged as the largest overall theme when combined with mental health benefits, accounting for 179 mentions in the study.
Health-related benefits included medical insurance, private healthcare coverage and employer-funded medical services, while wellbeing encompassed a broader range of wellness initiatives.
Flexibility and remote working received 111 mentions, covering hybrid schedules, remote work, flexible hours, four-day workweeks and work-from-home arrangements.
Paid leave, including annual, parental, sick and other forms of paid time off, recorded 101 mentions, highlighting the importance placed on work-life balance by both employees and employers.
Employees speak up about desk comfort
One of the study’s notable findings was the gap between the benefits employers promote and those employees discuss themselves.
More than 80 per cent of conversations about standing desks and ergonomic workstations came from employees rather than employers.
Standing desks and ergonomic workstations ranked eighth overall, with 56 mentions — 45 from employees and just 11 from employers.
A similar pattern emerged for standard desks and chairs, with around four in five mentions coming from employees.
In contrast, professional development, mental health benefits, and life and disability insurance were mentioned almost exclusively by employers in the dataset.
Free food ranks last
Despite free meals and snacks often being promoted as attractive recruitment perks, they ranked last among the benefits studied, with just six mentions.
The report cautioned that the low number of employee mentions does not necessarily indicate that these benefits are unwanted. Some perks, such as health insurance and paid leave, may increasingly be viewed as basic workplace expectations rather than benefits employees feel compelled to discuss.
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. However, NAVO said the findings should be viewed as broad workplace trends rather than conclusions specific to any single country.
