Why everyday savings are becoming a workplace benefit priority
For many employees, financial pressure is no longer confined to unexpected bills. It shows up in the weekly shop, the school run, family plans and the everyday choices that shape life outside work. Employers may already offer a broad benefits package, but breadth alone does not guarantee impact. People need support they can find, use and value in the moments that matter. As organisations look to strengthen financial resilience and prove the return on their benefits investment, everyday savings are moving from a useful extra to a workplace priority.
Quick Answer
Everyday savings are becoming a workplace benefit priority because employees increasingly value benefits they can use in real life, not just benefits that exist on paper.
In a hurry? Here are our top three takeaways from our blog on why everyday savings are becoming a workplace benefit priority.
1. Benefits only create value when employees use them: A long list of benefits means little if people can't see how the support helps them in real life.
2. Everyday savings can strengthen financial resilience: Helping employees reduce regular costs — such as groceries, travel and family activities — creates tangible value they can experience throughout the year.
3. Relevance and ease of access drive engagement: Benefits need to support different circumstances and life stages while being simple to find and use. The easier the experience, the more likely employees are to engage.
Got time to stick around? Let's dive a little deeper.
As financial pressures continue to affect households across the UK, employees are looking for support that helps them make their money go further. At the same time, employers are under pressure to maximise the impact of their benefits investment.
The result is a shift in how organisations think about benefits and rewards.
It's no longer simply about offering more benefits. It's about creating value people can feel.
According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), one in ten people have no cash savings and a further fifth have less than £1,000 set aside for emergencies.
Benefits that help employees navigate everyday life, from reducing household costs to building financial confidence, are becoming an increasingly important part of a modern employee benefits strategy.
Discover what benefits help employees cope with the rising cost of living.
The employee benefits conversation is changing
For years, organisations focused on building comprehensive benefits packages with more choice, more partners and more logins.
The logic made sense – to some degree.
Offering a broad range of support means employees are more likely to find something they value.
The problem is that value isn't created when a benefit exists. Value is created when a benefit is used, and increasingly, employees are judging benefits against a simple question: How does this help me in real life?
This shift is especially visible in the context of financial wellbeing.
While salary remains important, employees are also looking at the wider support available through their employer:
- Can it help me save?
- Can it help me stretch my budget?
- Can it help me feel more financially secure?
- Can it help me navigate everyday life more easily?
The organisations that answer "yes" to those questions are increasingly creating stronger employee experiences.
Quick takeaway:
Employees judge benefits by the difference they make to everyday life, not by the number of options available.
Why financial resilience has become a workplace priority
Financial wellbeing has moved beyond being a standalone HR initiative. Today, it’s increasingly linked to engagement, productivity, wellbeing and employee experience.
The FCA's latest findings highlight that many households lack sufficient emergency savings, and commentary from workplace savings advocates continues to demonstrate the role employers can play in supporting financial resilience.
Research highlighted by WEALTH at Work found growing concern around saving for the future, managing unexpected expenses and coping with rising financial pressures. Money worries can negatively effect stress levels, concentration, motivation and productivity.
For employers, this creates an opportunity. Not simply to provide benefits, but to provide support that employees can actually feel.
Quick takeaway:
Financial resilience is now connected to engagement and productivity, making it a business priority as well as a people priority.
Benefits only create value when employees can access them
Your benefits investment won’t deliver an ROI or make your employees’ lives easier just because you offer them. To realise the value, employees must regularly use their workplace benefits.
The most successful benefits and rewards programmes are not necessarily the ones with the longest list of perks.
They're the ones employees actually engage with, which is why everyday savings are becoming increasingly relevant. Not because they replace health benefits or even because they replace recognition. Everyday savings opportunities complement those benefits by providing value that employees can experience multiple times a day.
An employee might access healthcare support occasionally. They might receive recognition at key moments. They might engage with wellbeing initiatives throughout the year.
They buy groceries, book family activities, replace household appliances, pay for travel, manage school costs and make dozens of purchasing decisions every day, week, and month.
That's why everyday savings benefits often become a highly visible part of the overall employee experience.
Quick takeaway:
Everyday savings make the wider benefits package more visible by creating value employees can experience regularly.
Why employees value easy access to savings
The harder it is to make a saving, the less likely you are to take advantage of it. That’s why an Employee Experience Platform that gives employees easy access to savings on the things they need at the touch of a button is invaluable.
Employees have always been able to search for discounts online. What’s changed is the growing expectation that workplace benefits should make valuable support easier to discover and access.
The challenge isn't whether savings exist.
It's whether employees can realistically find them among countless websites, vouchers, cashback platforms and promotional offers.
A modern employee benefits platform helps reduce that friction.
Accessing savings independently vs through workplace benefits
You could hunt around for the best deals online, but that takes time and offers come and go. Everyday savings offered through workplace benefits are easy to access – the same place each time – and consistent. They’re savings you can rely on every day.
| Everyday need | Searching for savings independently | Accessing savings through employee benefits |
| Grocery shopping | Multiple cashback sites, retailer promotions and voucher platforms | Relevant savings brought together in one place |
| Family days out | Research across multiple attraction websites | Easier access to available employee offers |
| Travel and holidays | Time spent comparing different providers | Savings opportunities easier to discover |
| Technology purchases | Waiting for seasonal promotions | Ongoing access to savings through workplace benefits |
| Lifestyle spending | Searching multiple websites and apps | Centralised employee experience |
| Everyday purchases | Time spent looking for deals | Simpler experience focused on convenience |
The important point is this: The value isn't just in the savings themselves. It's in making those savings easier to access.
Because the easier benefits are to use, the more likely employees are to engage with them.
Quick takeaway:
Convenience is part of the benefit. The easier savings are to find and use, the more likely employees are to engage.
Employee discounts and the Pluxee Card: everyday savings that make a real difference
Employee Discounts and our cashback-earning Pluxee Card provide everyday savings that make a real difference because they allow employees to reduce the cost of or earn cashback on the things they already buy. Not shiny deals or high-purchase cashback deals – the things they’re already budgeting for.
One reason everyday savings benefits continue to grow in popularity is their ability to support a wide range of employee needs. Every employee's situation is different. However, many of the costs people face are surprisingly similar.
Areas where employees often look to reduce costs
| Category | Why it matters |
| Grocery shopping | One of the biggest recurring household expenses |
| Family activities | Important for household wellbeing and quality time |
| Holidays and travel | Significant annual spending area |
| Technology and home purchases | Higher-value purchases where savings accumulate quickly |
| Dining and leisure | Everyday lifestyle spending and social wellbeing |
| Health and wellbeing purchases | Supporting physical, emotional and mental health |
| Seasonal spending | Events such as Christmas, back-to-school and family celebrations |
These schemes allow you to make substitutes instead that are still friendly to your finances. We don’t have to give up on the things you love.
Connor Roche, on the Pluxee UK podcast
As we highlighted in our guide to strengthening your Employee Value Proposition, the cumulative impact of savings across multiple spending categories can be significant because value spreads across everyday purchases rather than concentrating in a single transaction.
By consistently earning cashback through the Pluxee Card and making savings through Employee Discounts, an employee can save an average of £1,200 a year. That turns a series of smaller savings on everyday and higher-value purchases into a meaningful annual benefit.
It's value employees can see in their household budget, not simply on a benefits platform.
The Pluxee Card can also connect a one-off reward with practical, everyday value. Viridor loaded a £100 Christmas reward onto the card for employees, giving them the flexibility to spend it where it mattered most to them.
When the pre-paid card arrived through the post, it was such a welcome surprise; it was easy to activate, and I was able to go to the supermarket and get every treat and trimming you could possibly wish for a family feast. Once the £100 was deducted from the card, I had just £14 left to pay for a three-course meal and drinks for 15! What a treat.
Ryan Peasland, Communications and Engagement Specialist, Viridor
The value does not stop with the original reward. Viridor employees can continue using the Pluxee Card as an ongoing cashback card, turning a memorable recognition moment into a practical way to save on future spending.
Read the case study here.
University of Salford: turning access into sustained engagement
The University of Salford shows what can happen when a robust induction plan and ongoing marketing support a strong employee discounts platform. Awareness and understanding are common barriers to benefits uptake, so the University focused on helping employees discover and use available savings.
Read the case study here.
| Measure | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Discounted voucher orders | 822 | 1,993 | 2,059 |
| Total employee spend | £90,982 | £209,839 | £233,486 |
| Total employee savings | £5,601 | £12,568 | £12,855 |
By 2024, 99.06% — more than 2,000 employees — were active users of the University’s employee discounts platform. Between 2022 and 2024, platform usage increased by 150%, employee spending rose by 156%, and employee savings grew by 129%. The steep rise between 2022 and 2023 was then sustained into 2024, showing that making benefits visible and easy to understand can support long-term engagement, not just an initial spike in interest.
This is why benefits are particularly powerful: Employees don't need to wait twelve months to feel the value.
They can experience it throughout the year.
Quick takeaway:
Combining cashback and employee discounts through the Pluxee Card can deliver average savings of £1,200 per employee, per year.
Why inclusive benefits matter more than ever
One-size-fits-all benefits have never truly existed. What matters to an employee starting their career may be completely different from what matters to a parent, carer or someone approaching retirement.
That's why inclusive benefits have become such an important focus for reward and people leaders.
The strongest benefits strategies recognise that people have different:
- Financial pressures
- Family situations
- Health needs
- Lifestyle preferences
- Life-stage priorities
Benefits priorities change throughout life
| Life stage | Example common priorities |
| Early career | Managing budgets, building savings, lifestyle affordability |
| Growing families | Household costs, family experiences, managing day-to-day spending |
| Mid-career | Financial stability, long-term planning, balancing multiple priorities |
| Pre-retirement | Building financial resilience and preparing for future needs |
The table above demonstrates why relevance matters.
The most effective benefits don't try to create identical value for everyone. They create meaningful value for different people in different circumstances.
Quick takeaway:
Inclusive benefits create relevant value for different people, not identical value for everyone.
Ease of use is becoming a competitive advantage
Many organisations invest heavily in employee benefits but still struggle with engagement.
The reason is often surprisingly simple: Employees don't know what's available, they find it difficult to access or they forget where to find it.
Ease of use has become such an important part of the employee experience because of those three reasons.
Employees expect benefits to work like the digital experiences they use every day. They want simplicity. Visibility. Accessibility. Convenience.
If a benefit is difficult to access, it becomes difficult to value. The future of benefits and rewards isn't simply more choice.
It's making support easier to find and easier to use.
Quick takeaway:
A benefit that is hard to find or use is also hard for employees to value.
Value people feel. Outcomes organisations can prove through everyday savings
Everyday savings are becoming a workplace benefit priority because they turn employer investment into support employees can experience in real life. A discount on the weekly shop, cashback on an essential purchase or a reward that helps cover a family celebration can make the value of a benefits package immediate and visible.
The evidence matters. Employees can save an average of £1,200 a year by combining cashback and discounts. At the University of Salford, clear induction and ongoing communication helped drive active usage to 99.06%, showing that value grows when benefits are easy to find, understand and use.
Key takeaway:
The strongest benefits strategies do more than offer value—they make that value relevant, accessible and easy for employees to feel in everyday life.
FAQs
What are everyday savings employee benefits?
Everyday savings employee benefits help employees reduce the cost of regular spending through discounts, cashback offers, purchasing savings and other financial wellbeing support.
Why are everyday savings becoming more important?
Rising financial pressures mean many employees value benefits that reduce day-to-day costs and improve financial resilience.
Do everyday savings replace other workplace benefits?
No. Everyday savings work alongside other benefits such as health and wellbeing programmes, recognition initiatives and financial wellbeing support. The strongest employee experience strategies combine multiple forms of value.
What makes a benefit inclusive?
Inclusive benefits create value for employees across different life stages, household situations and financial circumstances.
Why is ease of use important in employee benefits?
Employees are much more likely to engage with benefits that are easy to find, understand and access. Ease of use directly influences benefits engagement and perceived value.
How can employee benefits support financial resilience?
Employee benefits can help reduce everyday costs, encourage positive financial habits and improve financial confidence. Organisations such as the FCA, Money and Pensions Service and Building Societies Association have highlighted the workplace's role in supporting financial resilience.
Related Resources
To learn more about creating value employees can feel, explore:
- How We Help Employees
- Employee Discount Platform
- Pluxee Card
- Employee Experience Platform
- What are employee discount schemes and why your business needs one?
- How to support your employees during the cost-of-living crisis
- What is a prepaid card for employees?
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