
What are the best employee benefits?

Think a competitive salary is the only thing that employees care about? Think again.
Whether you want to attract better candidates to your organisation, or want to do all you can to retain the employees you currently have, putting attractive employee benefits packages in place can make a world of difference.
In this blog, we’re exploring the best employee benefits for your organisation, the types of workplace perks you can offer and examples of strong employee benefits packages.
The benefits of employee benefits
Providing workplace perks can increase interest in your job vacancy, and can dissuade current employees from looking elsewhere. Here’s why.
Employee benefits can improve life experience
Salary isn’t the only incentive for most of us. While none of us would say no to a raise, for most people, the amount their job pays isn’t the only thing they care about.
Most of us appreciate that money can’t buy happiness, and that there are more important things to life, like our health, work-life balance and spending more time with family.
Providing workplace perks that help employees to lead more fulfilling lives can be a very compelling reason to join or stay with a company.
Employee benefits can make teams happier
Happy teams are more productive and more profitable. There’s a reason why companies like Google provide their employees with free meals, sleeping pods and more - they want hard-working teams.
When you provide employees with additional resources, they enjoy their roles more - with a happier experience at work, they’re much more incentivised to do an excellent job.

Employee benefits can enhance careers - and fill skills gaps
Some employee benefits - like education credits, extra training or free resources - can help employees to progress in their careers. This benefits companies, as their teams are highly skills, and also benefits employees who gain access to better opportunities than they would at other organisations.
Employee benefits can reduce churn
Hiring can be a time-consuming, resource intensive process. While working with a recruitment agency like Eden Scott makes appointing the best candidates a lot easier, it’s preferable to retain your best employees and hire great talent as you grow, rather than routinely needing to replace your top performers.
Providing a better range of employee benefits can incentivise team members to stick with you. Offering meaningful benefits where competitors don’t will help your employees feel valued.
Types of employee benefits
There are four main types of employee benefits (or workplace perks) - financial, health and wellbeing, career development and recreational.
Financial benefits
Perks that reduce employees’ financial outlay or increase their overall income. These include:
- Enhanced pensions
- Staff discounts schemes
- Workplace financial advice
- Income protection
- Stocks entitlements, or ability to buy stocks
Health and wellbeing benefits
Workplace perks that help employees lead happier, healthier lives. These include:
- Generous sick leave
- Generous parental leave
- Extended holiday entitlement
- Extra holiday buying schemes
- Health insurance
- Life assurance
- Cycle to work scheme
- Mental health or duvet days
- Menopause leave
Career development benefits
Workplace perks that help employees deepen their professional skills and enhance their career opportunities. These include:
- Funding for qualifications
- Training courses
- Education leave
- Funding to attend conferences or networking events
Recreational benefits
Fun workplace perks to increase employees' enjoyment of working at a company. These include:
- Company days out
- Social events
- Free food and drink
- Staff parties
Employee benefits packages - what to prioritise
Although most of us enjoy a staff day out, don’t prioritise recreational benefits over other workplace perks. At Eden Scott, we speak with hundreds of prospective candidates each week. Here are the most important perks they want to see as part of their employee benefits packages.
Enhanced pension
Candidates are attracted to companies that will offer them more in pension contributions. The current statutory minimum employer contribution is 3% of an employee’s qualifying earnings, but some companies looking to poach top talent now contribute significantly more.
Other employers provide contributions matching schemes, where if an employee increases their pension contributions, the company will too.
Holidays
Life is for living, and while we’re now nearly half a decade out from the start of the pandemic, the ripple effects are long lasting.
Many workers still feel disillusioned by the idea of working longer hours to get ahead, and want to spend more time doing the things that matter to them most.
Often, this involves spending quality time with friends and family, or devoting more of their free time to a personal passion or hobby.
Employers that can offer benefits like flexi-time (where employees receive time in lieu for working beyond their contracted hours), additional annual leave entitlement and additional holiday buying schemes through salary sacrifice are attractive prospects for candidates.

Childcare entitlements
Being a working parent is hard. Offering support in the form of childcare voucher schemes and providing additional paid leave for new parents and expectant parents can be a huge plus for prospective candidates.
Some larger organisations provide discounted nursery schemes. Or, you could assess your remote working policy to ensure it accommodates parents.
Health insurance / Life assurance
Private health care insurance and life assurance schemes give your team peace of mind that, if things were to go wrong, the best support would be available to them and their families. Some companies provide health insurance as an in-build workplace perk, while others offer the option to buy insurance at a reduced price through salary sacrifice.
Company health insurance schemes often include things like counselling sessions, salary protection and more.
Employee benefits packages - what NOT prioritise
When listing benefits in job descriptions, here are some “perks” that could put candidates off from applying.
1. Standard annual leave entitlement
Everyone is entitled to 28 days of annual leave, so listing 28 days’ annual leave as a benefit is redundant.
2. Flexible working
Accommodating flexible working requests where reasonably possible is now a legal requirement. While you can refer to flexible working in job descriptions, offering it as a primary benefit might make you seem old fashioned.
3. ‘Fun’ perks
Recreational benefits are great - but if you prioritise them over financial, health and wellbeing benefits, you’re unlikely to attract or retain the best employees.
Next steps
Want advice on attracting the best candidates this year? Speak to a member of the Eden Scott team.