Employees are calling for increased employer pension contributions this year, as new research* reveals the most sought-after benefits for 2025.
The most desired benefits are as follows:
| Rank | All employees |
| 1. | Increased pension contributions (30%) |
| 2. | Private medical insurance (29%) |
| 3. | Employer contribution to energy costs at home (23%) / discounts/vouchers for high street shops/brands (23%) |
| 4. | Wellbeing allowance to spend on spend on what you choose (19%) |
| 5. | Paid mental health leave (16%) / workplace savings scheme (16%) |
Three in ten (30%) employees want employers to contribute a greater amount to their pension pots over the next 12 months. This figure jumps to 41% for those over 55 as this demographic increasingly looks to supplement retirement savings.
Currently, employers are required to contribute a minimum of 3% of an employee’s earnings toward their pension, ensuring a combined 8% when paired with an employee’s financial contribution. By increasing their contributions, employers can ease the financial burden on employees by ensuring they don’t have to reduce or cut continuations to retirement savings in order to manage short-term living expenses.
With NHS figures showing that almost 8 million people remain on waiting lists and with private insurance costs rising over the past few years, access to private medical insurance remains a significant draw for employees. This benefit, while top of the list last year, is ranked as the second most important benefit for employees – three in ten (29%) want private medical insurance in their employee benefits package throughout 2025. Again, this support was particularly sought-after amongst older employees, with two in five (39%) workers aged over 55 calling for it.
In addition to pension and healthcare benefits, high costs continue to shape employee priorities. With the energy cap rising 1.2% in January, a quarter (23%) of workers want employers to contribute money towards their energy costs at home whilst rising inflation has led to the same proportion calling for discount vouchers for high street shops.
Wellbeing benefits were also popular with employees of all ages – two fifth (19%) want their reward packages to include wellbeing vouchers they can spend on anything whilst 16% are looking for mental health leave to be introduced.
Matt Russell, CEO of Zest, says: “Continued economic challenges means many employees are looking for long-term financial support from their employer – increasing pension contributions is one of the most effective ways to reward employees and attract new talent.
“In a climate where many people have been forced to dip into their savings, employers who increase pension contributions can ensure their employees continue to build retirement pots, without impacting their day-to-day finances.
“Employers must ensure they listen to which benefits are most important to their employees – this is vital to boost morale and productivity, providing organisations with a competitive edge. In order to do this, employers need to use benefits technology that enables them to track the uptake on specific benefits, communicate with employees to understand their needs and adapt the support on offer.”
Zest is an employee benefits technology company with over 500 customers, including Hargreaves Lansdown, Taylor Wimpey, Yahoo and Travis Perkins, serving over 300,000 employees. Its multi award-winning platform offers a fresh approach to truly flexible employee benefits.
*research from Zest
