How to measure employee benefits ROI
20 November 2025
Employee benefits aren’t anything new, but with high living costs and rising employer costs, they’re no longer a ‘nice-to-have’; they’re a business strategy. Employee benefits can help solve multiple HR pain points: low retention, high absenteeism, pay increase freezes, and declining employee wellbeing. It’s one thing to build the case in your business pitch, but how do you measure the ROI of employee benefits to communicate the value and secure buy-in? Read on to find out.
Content:
What Is Employee Benefits ROI?
Why measuring benefits ROI matters for businesses
How do digital platforms measure ROI on employee benefits packages?
Key metrics to track when calculating employee benefits ROI
Step-by-step framework: How to measure employee benefits ROI
What are the top employee benefits that deliver the highest ROI for UK companies?
What employee perks have proven ROI in terms of employee retention?
What’s the best employee benefits software to improve ROI in the UK?
In a hurry? Here are the top three things to take away from our blog on measuring employee benefits ROI.
1. Employee benefits ROI is multi-dimensional — not just financial: To measure ROI properly, you need to track several people-based HR metrics (retention, engagement, absenteeism, presenteeism, productivity) alongside cost-based metrics (total spend, cost per employee, utilisation). The real return comes from how benefits improve wellbeing and performance, not just budget efficiency.
2. Measurement is essential — and easier with digital platforms: Consistent tracking of benefits uptake, usage and engagement is what allows you to prove (and improve) ROI. Platforms like the Pluxee Employee Experience centralise all reporting so you can link benefits usage to outcomes such as reduced turnover, lower absenteeism and improved engagement.
3. Financial wellbeing benefits deliver the strongest ROI today: With 81% of employees feeling cost-of-living pressure, financial wellbeing solutions (discounts, cashback cards, holistic money-supporting perks) deliver the highest return. They boost retention, reduce stress-related absence and presenteeism, and provide meaningful value when salary increases are limited.
Got time to stick around? Let's dive a little deeper.
What is employee benefits ROI?
Employee benefits Return on Investment (ROI) is the value or return your business realises that is directly attributable to your implementation of an employee benefits strategy. Measuring the return is more than calculating money out vs money in. Measuring ROI on employee benefits programmes involves understanding the workplace landscape and HR ROI metrics, including retention rates, engagement, productivity, and absenteeism.
HR ROI Metrics
Some calculations follow a standardised formula, such as customer acquisition costs, where you calculate how much it costs you to secure a client vs how much revenue those clients bring–something we discuss in our blog, ‘How to retain talent & clients in your management consultancy’.
It’s not the same with employee benefits ROI, because you don’t have one KPI or figure to measure against. There are multiple, as we'll explore below:
- Retention: It can cost between £30,000 and £90,000 to replace an employee—more for higher-paid roles. Your employee turnover rate is an HR ROI metric you need when calculating the return on employee benefits programmes, since perks and wellbeing solutions improve employee retention. Discover how to calculate employee turnover here.
- Engagement: Engaged employees drive business growth, help you capture new markets, and reduce absenteeism and turnover. You can read more about the importance of employee engagement in our blog, ‘Re-engaging the disengaged employee.’ Run a pulse survey to assess your employees' engagement level before you launch your employee benefits programme, then rerun it a year later. If engagement has improved, it’s an ROI you can attribute to employee benefits.
- Presenteeism: Known as working when unwell, relates to those employees who ‘power through’ when they ought to take time out to rest. The latest figures suggest presenteeism costs UK employers £24 billion annually (Psychreg). The Stanford Presenteeism Scale is widely recognised as an effective measure of presenteeism.
- Absenteeism: An HR ROI metric that’s easy to measure, since your HR teams will log unplanned employee absences. Employee benefits can help your employees become healthier, especially when you offer a holistic package that supports financial, mental, and physical wellbeing. Absenteeism costs businesses approximately £547 per employee annually (Verve Healthcare). Measure absenteeism costs before and after implementing your employee benefits strategy to determine ROI.
- Productivity: It affects cash flow, but it’s a people-based metric, as, on the whole, your workforce is responsible for your output. Absenteeism, presenteeism, and disengagement impact performance and productivity, so this is another critical metric to measure to determine the difference your employee benefits strategy makes.
You can learn more about the costs of absenteeism and presenteeism in our blog post, ‘How to reduce employee absenteeism.’
Engagement & satisfaction metrics
We’ve listed engagement as an HR ROI metric, but there are three areas to measure within this.
- Employee satisfaction surveys: Your engagement or Pulse surveys. They enable the measurement of employee sentiment at a given moment.
- Net promoter score (eNPS): Net promoter scores also help you gauge employee sentiment, identifying three groups within your business: Detractors, Passives and Promoters. The balance between the three groups determines your overall eNPS score.
- Benefit-specific satisfaction: You can gauge whether your employees are satisfied with your employee benefits by analysing usage data, but you could also run further surveys to gather qualitative data and benefits feedback.
Why measuring benefits ROI matters for businesses
Measuring employee benefits ROI matters for businesses because they’re an investment that needs to deliver results, especially in today’s climate. Companies must consider where they invest and what measures they take to support employee wellbeing and boost take-home pay.
When you regularly measure employee benefits uptake and engagement, which is how they deliver an ROI, you have the data to inform you of what is or isn’t working, allowing you to make the necessary changes to maximise results.
How do digital platforms measure ROI on employee benefits packages?
The Pluxee Employee Experience Platform centralises all your benefits and rewards into one hub, with all the reporting dashboards in one place. You can measure how many employees are engaging with their benefits, how and where they’re saving money, and therefore the positive impact it’s having on their wellbeing.
Analyse this data against the HR ROI metrics listed above to measure the business efficiencies associated with reducing turnover, absenteeism, presenteeism, and boosting engagement, and quantify the financial ROI of employee benefits.
Key metrics to track when calculating employee benefits ROI
From HR ROI metrics or people-based metrics to the cost-based metrics you’ll need to identify.
Cost-based metrics
There are three cost-based metrics to measure: total benefits spend, cost per employee and benefits utilisation rate.
- Total benefits spend: How much does the Pluxee Employee Experience Platform or any other benefits offering cost you per year? As a SaaS model, we have three bundles, Activate, Engage, and Elevate, ensuring price transparency and a package to suit all needs. If you run any wellbeing initiatives or have additional policies that offer employees more than their salary, capture any associated costs in your review.
- Cost per employee: We price our three bundles on headcount, so it’s easy to calculate the cost per head. As above, capture any other expenses, such as an annual Wellbeing Fund.
- Benefits utilisation rate: You’ve identified the costs; next, you need to assess your benefits utilisation rate. The Pluxee Employee Experience Platform provides real-time insights and reports the metrics that help you prove ROI.
Step-by-step framework: How to measure employee benefits ROI
Let’s recap on all we’ve covered in a straightforward step-by-step framework on how to measure employee benefits ROI.
Step 1: Identify your objectives
What are the objectives of your employee benefits strategy? These include improving retention, reducing absenteeism, or a combination of all the metrics discussed above.
Step 2: Gather cost data
Identify the total and per-employee cost of your benefits packages.
Step 3: Analyse usage and engagement
Use platform reporting functionality to analyse usage data.
Step 4: Link benefits to outcomes
Identify which metrics have improved since implementing your employee benefits platform and strategy.
Step 5: Apply the ROI formula
You may need to apply individual formulas, depending on your objectives, to identify cost savings in each area. For example, if you’ve determined what absenteeism costs you before benefits, along with your absenteeism rate, you can calculate the money saved by reducing it.
Apply this thinking to each objective.
Step 6: Report and refine programme
Once you’ve identified the ROI in each area, you’re ready to report on the overall ROI of your employee benefits strategy using this formula: Total Benefits Gains - Total Costs = ROI.
What are the top employee benefits that deliver the highest ROI for UK companies?
Employee Discounts and Prepaid Cashback Cards are the employee benefits that deliver the highest ROI for UK companies because they significantly improve financial wellbeing. They also help provide more value to employees when pay increases are frozen or limited.
81% of UK employees are feeling the squeeze from rising costs, making financial wellbeing their top priority.
Financial worries impact mental and physical health and increase absenteeism and disengagement. Stretching salaries through cost-effective benefits that make employees' money work harder, improving their lifestyle, their wellbeing and your HR metrics.
What employee perks have proven ROI in terms of employee retention?
An inclusive range of financial wellbeing benefits that deliver real value to your employees is proven to deliver an ROI by reducing employee turnover. In our blog, ‘Retaining Skills & Reducing Employee Turnover in 2024 & Beyond’, we reveal that 36.93% of the employees who participated in our research chose ‘enhanced financial benefits’ as the top reason they’d stay with their current employer–receiving the most votes out of all the options.
It's not just about more money. 44.21% of our respondents said reward and recognition should be a top priority in their business. They want a holistic employee experience where their needs and values are met. Thankfully, recognition and rewards are also a core feature of our Employee Experience Platform, boosting morale, creating a positive culture and improving engagement and retention.
What’s the best employee benefits software to improve ROI in the UK?
It’s not just what benefits you provide; it’s how you deliver them. Platforms that consolidate perks and rewards into one hub, like the Pluxee Employee Experience, are proven to deliver benefits engagement 6 times higher. Especially when your employees have access to everything via a user-friendly, intuitive app.
Measure and improve employee benefits ROI with Pluxee UK
You know the steps to follow to measure employee benefits ROI, but there’s more to getting results than knowing the numbers. You need the right perks, the best platform, and a partner who works with you to drive uptake and impact.
Request a call to discover why #WorksBetterWithPluxee.
