Employee discount schemes: Help salaries go further every day
Helping salaries go further shouldn't depend on waiting for Black Friday. From the weekly food shop to clothes and days out, employee discount schemes can help people spend less on purchases they already plan to make. For employers, the opportunity isn't simply to offer more deals. It's about making everyday savings relevant, accessible, and easy to use throughout the year. This blog explores what makes a discount scheme genuinely useful, how it can support financial wellbeing, and why communication and engagement matter: the real value of an employee benefit lies in how people use it, not just in access.
Quick answer: How do employee discount schemes help salaries go further?
Employee discount schemes help salaries go further by reducing the cost of purchases employees already intend to make, from groceries to clothing. Unlike waiting for Black Friday, they offer year-round savings. Their value depends on relevant retailers, easy access and regular use. They can support financial wellbeing, but won't solve every financial challenge.
Three things to know:
1. Everyday savings matter beyond Black Friday: Help employees spend less on purchases they already make throughout the year, rather than encouraging extra spending.
2. Useful savings beat headline discounts: Relevant retailers and easy access make a scheme more valuable than a large discount on something employees don't need.
3. Engagement turns access into value: Communicate regularly and track enrolment, spending and employee savings to understand how the scheme is being used.
Black Friday savings or everyday savings?
Black Friday can be brilliant for bagging something you've been waiting to buy. It can also create pressure to spend. Countdown timers, limited availability, and big percentage reductions can make a purchase suddenly feel urgent. Employee discounts work differently.
The goal isn't to encourage employees to spend more. It's to help them spend better.
Think groceries, clothes, toiletries, days out and other things people already spend their salary on.
That's where an employee discount scheme can become more than another perk in the benefits package. It can become a practical financial wellbeing benefit employees can use year-round.
| What matters | Seasonal and ad hoc savings | Everyday employee discounts |
| When you can save | During specific promotions or sales events, such as Black Friday. | Throughout the year with participating retailers, subject to offer availability and terms. |
| What they're useful for | A planned purchase when the right deal comes along. | Regular purchases, such as groceries and toiletries, as well as occasional spending. |
| How you find savings | Look for individual deals and compare prices before the promotion ends. | Check an employer-provided marketplace for relevant retailers before buying. |
| Spending pressure | Short deadlines and limited availability can make an unplanned purchase feel urgent. | Can fit around existing shopping habits. Offers still need to match a genuine need and budget. |
| Where the value comes from | A worthwhile reduction on something you already intended to buy. | Repeated opportunities to reduce the cost of purchases you already make. |
| What to check | The final price, affordability and whether the deal is genuinely competitive. | The final price, retailer coverage and redemption terms. A discount isn't automatically the cheapest option. |
What is an employee discount scheme?
An employee discount scheme gives employees access to exclusive savings with participating retailers and brands through their employer.
With the Pluxee Employee Experience Platform, employees can access the Discounts Marketplace through the Pluxee App and find savings with more than 100 retailers, with some offering discounts of up to 20%.
Simple.
The bigger question is whether employees actually use it.
What makes an employee discount scheme valuable?
Thousands of discounts are available online, but employees have to search for them and use them before the deal expires. An employee discount scheme accessible via an app puts the savings your employees need in the palm of their hands, every day.
Still, there’s more to the story. For an employee discount scheme to deliver real value, it needs to be:
1. Relevant
A huge discount on something an employee would never normally buy doesn't necessarily help their financial wellbeing.
Savings with retailers employees already shop with can be much more useful. That's why our Discounts Marketplace focuses on access to discounts across more than 100 retailers.
Real value isn't simply the size of the discount. It's the value employees can actually use.
2. Easy to access
A benefit buried behind another login or hidden somewhere employees rarely visit is less likely to become part of everyday life.
Pluxee Employee Experience brings employee benefits together within one app, giving employees access to their Discounts Marketplace from their phone.
The easier the journey, the easier it becomes to turn knowing about a benefit into actually using it.
3. Personal
Different employees value different things.
One employee might want to reduce their grocery bill. Another might want to save on Christmas shopping. Someone else might be planning a family day out.
Employees can configure their Discounts Marketplace around retailers they want to spend with, making the experience more relevant.
That's important because benefits only create value when they fit real lives.
4. Useful beyond Black Friday
This is perhaps the biggest distinction because Black Friday comes once a year.
Financial wellbeing matters every payday.
A useful employee discount scheme shouldn't rely on employees waiting for a major sales event. It should give them opportunities to save year-round.
That turns discounts from a seasonal perk into an everyday benefit.
Quick takeaway:
Prioritise savings employees can actually use: relevant retailers, easy access and opportunities to save on planned purchases throughout the year.
Employee discount schemes and financial wellbeing
Financial wellbeing doesn't start and finish with salary. In fact, salary-stretching solutions like employee discount schemes are one of the best ways to support financial wellbeing because they make the monthly pay packet go further.
Employee discounts won't solve every financial challenge employees face, nor should they be positioned as doing so. They can, however, give employees another practical way to manage everyday costs.
Good financial wellbeing benefits shouldn't encourage people to consume more. They should help people make the money they already have work harder.
For employees at the University of Salford, that value is practical.
I like the wide variety of offers available and the selection of options, including prepaid cards, cashback, and general discounts. In a cost-of-living crisis, it’s really useful to know that we have lots of options to save even more money.
Dean Brown, Reading List Support Administrator, Library, Careers and Enterprise Team, University of Salford
Black Friday is a useful reminder of that principle.
The question isn't: How many deals can we give employees?
It's: How much useful value can employees get from their benefits?
Employee discounts only work when employees use them
If you want your employee discounts scheme to deliver value and help employees save money, they have to use them. An impressive benefits package on paper doesn't always translate into real-life value.
Employees need to know:
- What's available
- Where to find it
- How to use it
- Why it's useful to them.
That's why ongoing benefits communication matters.
The University of Salford’s experience shows why access alone isn’t enough.
My team and I wanted to help the people who needed it the most, but unfortunately, they were the least engaged with our platform.
James Walsh, Reward Analyst. University of Salford
Alongside its induction programme and marketing support, the University used dedicated in-person workshops to reach colleagues who weren’t regularly accessing digital communications.
The Pluxee Employee Experience Platform includes marketing and communications designed to encourage benefit engagement, alongside giveaways and challenges intended to keep employees coming back to their benefits.
Because the real measure of a benefit isn't simply whether you've provided it. It's whether employees feel the value.
How can employers measure the value of employee discounts?
For HR teams, employee experience matters. So does proving the return on the investment. Benefits data can help employers understand whether employees are actually engaging. The Pluxee Employee Experience Platform dashboard gives administrators visibility into measures including enrolment, amount spent, and employee savings.
That moves the conversation beyond: We've got an employee discount scheme towards: Here's how our people are using it and the value they're receiving.
That's a much more powerful story when you're demonstrating the impact of your benefits investment.
Quick takeaway:
Measure more than access. Track enrolment, spending and actual employee savings to understand whether your discount scheme is delivering practical value.
Everyday savings in practice: University of Salford
The University of Salford case study reports a 150% increase in discounts platform usage and a 129% increase in employee savings between 2022 and 2024. Its discounted voucher orders and savings show how that translated into measurable value:
- 2022: 822 discounted voucher orders, £90,982 in employee spending and £5,601 in employee savings.
- 2023: 1,993 discounted voucher orders, £209,839 in employee spending and £12,568 in employee savings.
- 2024: 2,059 discounted voucher orders, £233,486 in employee spending and £12,855 in employee savings.
These are annual figures, not Black Friday results or a guaranteed saving for each employee. They show why it’s worth measuring both usage and actual savings over time, rather than simply counting the offers available.
Make Black Friday value last beyond November
Black Friday might put saving money at the front of people's minds. For employers, the bigger opportunity lasts much longer. Employee discounts can help your people stretch their salaries further throughout the year, provided the savings are relevant, accessible, and easy to use.
That's the difference between having a benefits platform and creating value employees actually feel.
Ultimately, that's what employee benefits should be designed to do.
Key takeaway:
Employee discounts should help people save on purchases they already plan to make, not wait for Black Friday or spend more to secure a deal. For employers, the priority is relevant retailers, easy access and regular communication, then measuring actual usage and savings to understand the value employees receive throughout the year.
FAQs
What is an employee discount scheme?
An employee discount scheme gives employees access to exclusive savings and offers through their employer. Depending on the provider, these can include discounts or cashback at retailers employees use every day.
Can employee discount schemes support financial wellbeing?
They can support a wider financial wellbeing strategy by helping employees reduce the cost of purchases they already make. The key is providing relevant savings employees can realistically use.
How does the Pluxee employee discount scheme work?
Employees access the Discounts Marketplace through the Pluxee app. They can find participating retailers, purchase a discounted eVoucher where applicable and use it when shopping online or in-store.
How much can employees save with Pluxee?
Pluxee currently states that its Discounts Marketplace includes more than 100 retailers, with some offering discounts of up to 20%.
Why are employee discounts relevant around Black Friday?
Black Friday naturally focuses attention on saving money, but effective employee discount schemes provide value beyond a single sales event. They can help employees save on everyday purchases throughout the year.
How can employers measure employee discount engagement?
Pluxee's dashboard provides reporting on enrolment, employee spending, and savings, helping benefits teams understand how the scheme is used.
