A competitive salary remains an important part of any job offer, but it is rarely the only thing candidates consider when deciding whether to join - or remain with - an organisation.
Employee benefits, working arrangements, development opportunities and the wider experience of working for an employer all contribute to how attractive an opportunity feels.
A well-designed benefits package can therefore support both recruitment and retention. But that does not necessarily mean offering the longest possible list of perks. The most effective benefits are those that employees genuinely value, reflect the needs of your workforce and support your wider employee value proposition (EVP).
In this guide, we look at the different types of employee benefits employers can consider, how to understand what people value and how to make sure the investment you make in benefits is actually working.
Benefits can be used in several ways and for different outcomes. Perhaps most importantly, they can support your strategy to both recruit and retain staff.
Candidates increasingly consider the overall employment package when comparing opportunities. Salary matters, but so do things like flexibility, annual leave, pension contributions, healthcare, family support, professional development and the ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Benefits can also reinforce your workplace culture and EVP. What you choose to offer, and how employees experience those benefits in practice, tells people something about what your organisation values.
However, simply adding more benefits is not necessarily the answer. Employers need to understand which benefits matter to their people and prospective candidates.
It is useful to distinguish between statutory employment rights and additional benefits provided by the employer.
Employers have legal obligations covering areas including annual leave, workplace pensions and certain types of family-related leave and pay. Eligibility and entitlements vary depending on employment status and individual circumstances.
Anything offered above the statutory requirement can then form part of the employer's wider benefits package.
For example, an organisation might offer:
This distinction is important when communicating your benefits package. Something an employee is entitled to by law should not be presented as though it is a discretionary company perk.
Employment law also changes, so employers should regularly review their policies and check current GOV.UK or professional HR/legal guidance before publishing details of statutory entitlements.
There is no single benefits package that will suit every organisation or every employee.
Your offering will depend on your workforce, sector, budget, organisational culture and the type of people you are trying to attract.
However, there are several core areas worth considering.
Benefits should complement a competitive salary rather than compensate for one that is significantly below market rate.
Before looking at additional perks, make sure salaries themselves are positioned appropriately.
Financial benefits might then include:
Salary benchmarking can be particularly valuable here.
If you are struggling to recruit despite offering what appears to be an attractive package, a specialist recruiter can provide market insight into what comparable employers are paying and what candidates currently expect.
Employers must provide access to a workplace pension scheme and automatically enrol eligible employees. Some employers choose to go beyond the statutory minimum by offering higher employer contributions or contribution matching.
This can be particularly valuable to employees focused on longer-term financial security. Make the actual employer contribution clear when advertising roles. Simply listing “company pension” tells candidates very little when workplace pension provision is already a legal requirement.
Annual leave can be an important part of the overall employment package.
Employers could consider offering:
Think about how the policy operates in practice too. A generous holiday allowance has limited value if workloads or workplace culture make employees reluctant or unable to use it.
Employees have a statutory right to request flexible working from their first day of employment, although this does not mean every request must be accepted. Employers can differentiate their offering through the flexibility they make available in practice. For many candidates, flexibility is no longer viewed as a small additional perk.
It can include:
We are not suggesting every role needs to be fully remote. Different jobs and organisations have different operational requirements. What matters is considering what flexibility is genuinely possible rather than automatically defaulting to one working pattern.
Health and wellbeing support can take many forms.
Depending on your budget and workforce, this could include:
Again, relevance matters more than volume.
Sellick Partnership's 2025 candidate research found that paid medical leave and support was selected by 45% of respondents, while mental wellbeing support was selected by 31%.
Rather than introducing a wellbeing initiative because it sounds attractive on paper, consider whether employees understand it, can access it easily and actually use it.
Employees' responsibilities outside work vary considerably, which makes family-friendly and carer support an important consideration when designing an inclusive benefits package.
Depending on the organisation, this might include:
Avoid assuming that family-friendly policies are relevant only to parents of young children. Employees may be supporting elderly parents, partners, disabled family members or other dependants, while others may need support for fertility treatment, adoption or different routes to parenthood.
A more inclusive approach considers the range of circumstances within your workforce.
Development opportunities may not always be described as a traditional employee benefit, but they can play a major role in attracting and retaining people.
Options could include:
Do not overlook these when communicating the employment package.
For ambitious candidates in particular, being able to see how they could develop over the next few years may be more valuable than a short-term perk.
One of the biggest problems with categorising benefits as essential, must-have or nice-to-have is that their value is subjective. A benefit that is extremely valuable to one employee could be almost irrelevant to another.
Someone with caring responsibilities may highly value flexible start and finish times. Another employee might prioritise pension contributions, while someone at an earlier stage of their career may be particularly interested in qualifications and progression.
Life stage can influence priorities, but employers should also be careful not to make assumptions based on age, gender or personal circumstances.
The best way to understand what people value is to ask them.
Before investing in new benefits, find out what your workforce thinks about the package you already provide.
You could gather feedback through:
Ask not only which additional benefits people would like, but:
You may discover that the issue is not a lack of benefits at all.
Sellick Partnership's 2025 research found that 22% of candidates were unaware of the inclusive benefits already available in their current workplace.
That suggests employers may sometimes achieve more by improving communication and accessibility than by immediately adding something new.
Your employees can tell you what helps with retention. Candidates can help you understand attraction.
Recruitment conversations provide useful insight into:
If several strong candidates raise the same concern, take notice.
A specialist recruiter who speaks to professionals across your market every day can provide particularly useful evidence about changing candidate expectations.
Benefits should not be designed in isolation.
Look at what comparable employers within your sector and location are offering.
Consider:
That does not mean you need to match competitors benefit for benefit. Benchmarking helps you understand where your package is strong, where it is weaker and where you may need another point of difference.
Sellick Partnership provides salary benchmarking, talent availability insight and wider market intelligence to employers, which can help organisations understand how an opportunity is positioned against the market.
A good benefits package should work for as much of your workforce as possible. Review whether your offering unintentionally favours particular groups.
For example, a social calendar centred heavily around alcohol may exclude some employees. Benefits based entirely around an office location may offer limited value to remote employees, while perks focused predominantly on parents could overlook carers and employees without children.
Consider:
You may also want to provide some choice.
A flexible benefits scheme, where employees can select from a range of options, can sometimes create more value than providing everybody with exactly the same package.
Few organisations have an unlimited benefits budget. The aim should therefore be to maximise value, rather than simply maximise spending.
Ask:
Some highly valued benefits do not necessarily involve substantial direct expenditure.
Greater flexibility, volunteering time, career development conversations or clearer progression pathways may be highly attractive without carrying the same cost as private medical insurance or a large bonus scheme.
Equally, a benefit that seems inexpensive may provide little value if virtually nobody wants or uses it.
There is little recruitment advantage in offering a strong benefits package if candidates do not know about it. Benefits should be communicated throughout the candidate journey.
Include the most important benefits and working arrangements rather than simply writing "competitive benefits package".
Candidates want useful information.
Our 2025 candidate survey found that 25% would not apply for a role if benefits were not included in the job advert, while 55% expected inclusive benefits to be communicated clearly at the advert stage.
Interviewers should be able to explain the package accurately and answer straightforward questions about working arrangements, flexibility and benefits.
This is also an opportunity to talk about elements of the EVP that cannot easily be captured in a bullet-point list.
Provide the full package clearly.
The candidate should understand:
Do not allow attractive benefits mentioned earlier in the recruitment process to become vague when the offer arrives.
Benefits packages should not remain unchanged simply because "this is what we have always offered".
Review them regularly. Before changing or removing an existing benefit, check whether it forms part of employees’ contractual terms and follow the appropriate consultation process where required.
Useful measures could include:
Look beyond uptake alone.
A life assurance policy, for example, is not something you would expect employees to actively "use" in the same way as a gym membership. Its value lies partly in the security it provides.
Similarly, a benefit may have low overall uptake but be extremely important to a smaller group of employees.
Use a combination of data and employee feedback to determine what is working.
Your employee value proposition is the overall answer to a candidate's question:
“Why should I work here rather than somewhere else?”
Benefits are one element of that answer.
Your wider EVP is likely to include:
These elements should reinforce one another.
For example, an organisation that describes work-life balance as a core part of its EVP needs working practices and benefits that support that claim.
Similarly, an employer promoting career progression should be able to demonstrate real development opportunities. Benefits are most powerful when they reflect the organisation you genuinely are, rather than being treated as an isolated list of perks.
For more advice, take a look at our guide to creating your employee value proposition.
Use these questions when reviewing your existing package:
There is no universal list of employee benefits that every employer needs to offer.
The strongest package is one that combines competitive pay and appropriate statutory provision with additional benefits that reflect what your employees and prospective candidates genuinely value.
That means listening to your workforce, understanding the candidate market, benchmarking your offer and regularly reviewing whether your benefits are achieving what you intended.
Sellick Partnership works closely with employers and professionals across our specialist markets, giving our Recruitment Consultants insight into current salaries, candidate priorities, talent availability and the packages being offered by competing organisations.
If you are reviewing your benefits or wider attraction strategy, contact Sellick Partnership to discuss the market for the roles you recruit or submit a vacancy to speak to one of our specialist Recruitment Consultants.
Please note: This article is intended as general information only. Employment law and statutory entitlements can change, and requirements may vary depending on individual circumstances. Employers should check current GOV.UK guidance and seek appropriate legal or HR advice where required.
