Best Employee Benefits in Malaysia, According to Malaysians Who Get Them
Good employers and great employee benefits in Malaysia exist. Before we even start this article, I just want to tell you that despite all the workplace-related horror stories you read on social media, good and caring employers exist. They just get overshadowed by all the bad ones.
And here’s the thing – they *want* to attract you, a talented professional, to work with them.
This article serves two purposes:
- For employers and future employers to take note of what brilliant employees expect in exchange for their hard work and loyalty, so you can grow your business better
- For employees to refuse – nay, reject – workplaces that don’t treat them well. Let those businesses die a slow death, they deserve it
Types of Employee Benefits in Malaysia
I would categorise employee benefits in Malaysia into two types: mandatory employee benefits (bare minimum) and AMAZING.
Let’s cover the first one – the mandatory employee benefits in Malaysia. These benefits are considered bare minimum, but some companies don’t even do them!
Mandatory employee benefits (bare minimum)
- Safe and comfortable office to do the work in
- Functional, legal and safe work tools and equipment
- Respectful boss/superior who don’t take advantage of you (being exploitative, offer minimum wage only, overt discriminative actions/policies, force you to work more than expected, never pay for overtime, withhold your salary/EPF, etc)
- Sanctioned holidays and annual leaves
That’s it. That’s pretty much it, that’s the bare minimum. If your employer right now is not fulfilling any of the above basics, run.
List of Employee Benefits in Malaysia: Beyond bare minimum
Now that we got the bare basics out of the way, we can move on to the actually cool employee benefits. These benefits show that the employers value their employees’ well-being and sense of purpose.
Take note that it’s not realistic to expect your employer to provide ALL of these benefits, but a selection of them is nice. My intention is to let you know about some benefits out there, not to make you feel bitter about what you don’t have!
These employee benefits include:
- Pays a competitive salary
- Cool colleagues
- Pantry with fridge and microwave
- Free-flow hot beverages like coffee and tea, and snacks
- Filtered drinking water
- Fun hanging out spaces to rejuvenate
- Comprehensive healthcare and medical benefits
- Childcare assistance
- Covers dental and optical
- Flexible working hours
- Option to work from home
- Great work-life balance (40 hours per week)
- Generous claims for transportation and/or utilities
- Access to gyms, fitness-related activities and/or wellness programmes
- Company retreats, outings and makan occasions
- Opportunities for salary increments, self-development and career growth
- Annual leaves that can be carried forward and/or can be converted into cash value
- Annual bonus
All those are nice, right? Ah man, being self-employed and working from home is fun and all, but I do miss these employee benefits, I really do.
But wait! The fun part comes from the RoR audience. When I asked the question as a mini-forum, some of you told me employee benefits in Malaysia that I’ve never even thought of!
Other amazing employee benefits in Malaysia, as shared by Malaysians
Here are some replies, published with permission (underline is my emphasis):
Sangeetha Jayaram – My current employer provides flexibility to work from home, great medical benefits inclusive spouse and kids, flexible hours, and nothing beats my department GM and my boss, truly the best.
My current employer also sponsored my learning and development. They paid for my training in Agile and Scrum, and I passed both certification exams. I am now exploring DevOps.
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Eddie Yong – I’m a Malaysian working in Singapore. (They provide me with) child care leaves. Dental subsidy. Snacks (overflowed chocolates). Coffee machine. Fridges with can drinks. Nice office environment to chill and work. Most importantly cool boss😆
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ARia ADia Sha RoSe – (My workplace does) Fruits day once a week 🍇🍊🍎🍏
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Syaza Nazura – (I get) Free parking. Also lots of tea and coffee for those who drink them (not me but they have Milo too so I’m good). Also I got an office laptop (choice between Dell XPS and Macbook Air, obv chose the Macbook) to use (that I can bring home).
(I also get access to) Gym, swimming pool and running tracks to use before and after work. Microwave and fridge to use. Staff gets 30% off for lunch sets at the canteen.
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Dzurihan Yusoff – (I get) Career growth, vast knowledge expansion, unlimited medical benefit, 30 days annual leave, smart casual attire, yearly increment, and Harvard Business Corporate e-learning subscription.
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Brian Soon – Every 2 weeks, the company gives us a Friday off. So in a month we get 2 extra days of leave. It’s really nice to have an extra day for the weekend where you can settle other things (eg going to the bank or catching up with friends) 😁
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To elaborate more, my company is from France and they really value work-life balance in their work culture. For maternity leave, the ladies get 4 months off and the man get 1 month off as parental leave.
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Ivan – I used to work for a US organisation. With them I enjoyed: 3 meals a day, housing with free air-conditioning, internet and water, free parking at work and petrol reimbursement, basic 12 annual leave + 1 day additional for every 2 years you work, unused annual leave can be carried forward to the following year, yearly bonus of one month, and unlimited amount of special paid leave (Family funeral, hospitalisation, dental visit, emergency cases etc)
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So you see, the point I made in my first paragraph stands. Good employers exist, and they may be looking for you right now.
What cool employee benefits do you have?
By this point, if you’re feeling like your company can do better, then you have 3 choices:
- implement the benefits you want yourself (go and propose to workplace, never ask never know. Some benefits don’t require much funds to implement!), or
- find the employer of your dreams, or
- accept and just be grateful for the job that you do have. It could be worse :/
Does your company offer employee benefits that are not included here? I’d love to see more variety – and dare I say, creativity – among different companies 😀 Let us know in the comments section!
Lol this is a fun post. I went from a co that didnt even have a microwave in the pantry to one that has a coffee machine, cafe-like makan area, fruits in baskets, can drinks and chocolates in the fridge. For a few weeks i was in a state of disbelief. There are also libraries, game rooms and R&R club with free movie tickets. And we can go home early once a month. All these do help with your morale.
I’m glad you found a nice place to work at!
This is so relatable! I went from a workplace that didn’t meet ANY of the four basic criteria above, to one that absolutely does, and I was in awe at everything from the water dispenser to the laptop they handed me. I get travel and phone allowance, housing subsidy, medical and dental, and travel insurance, and because my boyfriend’s only day off is Monday they were happy to let me take Mondays off too and work Saturdays from home instead.
My ex-employer was so miserly and fostered a toxic workplace where I definitely stopped being motivated to put much effort in. It’s the opposite at this one.
Correct me if I’m wrong, these perk can help to reduce company tax bill, because it’s considered as part of the company ‘operating cost’. This is why giving perks are more favorable compare to giving a great salary increment, coz if doing so company required to fork out more money contributing to employee’s EPF. 🙁
I have no idea if that’s true, but if it is… there’s no reason for companies to not provide a good work environment to their employees lah kan? Now thats just mean
Great articles!
It’s great to know that a lot of companies in Malaysia do offer cool benefits for their employee.
I used to work in a MNC but have to move due to learning opportunities and career progression. I do Missed the benefits that I used to enjoy sometimes. Good days :’)
Yes there are a lot of good employers out there 🙂 That’s why had to preface the article with that fact. People need to know that calculative employers are not the norm!
Awesome topic there Suraya!
My previous work places have had these:
1st (right after graduating) workplace: discounts for meals at hotel staff canteen
2nd workplace: extremely decorated office from top to bottom (its a 3-storey building). Plenty of instagramable backdrops.
3rd workplace: generous boss (knowledge and monetary)
Current workplace: Free parking (office is in the heart of KL), monthly meal coupons, birthday gift vouchers, impeccable attendance rewards, medical (that covers spouse, kids, parents), dental coverage, maternity bills (there’s a limit though). That’s about it.
Your current workplace sounds like a dream! So happy for you! Even free parking is like what, savings of RM300+ a month if in KL? Very cool of them 🙂
So lucky! I pray that I work somewhere that cares about the employees too 😀
Pray for you too 🙂
30 days of leave per year.