The Employee Benefits That Help UK Employers Retain Staff
Keeping good staff is a challenge for many UK employers. Recruitment is expensive, onboarding takes time, and when an experienced employee leaves, they take valuable knowledge and relationships with them.
One way employers can encourage people to stay is by offering benefits that genuinely support their lives, not just their working day. But with so many options available, it can be difficult to know which benefits employees value.
One area that’s receiving more attention is reproductive health and fertility support. It’s still not something most employers offer, but for employees going through fertility treatment, pregnancy loss, menopause or other reproductive health challenges, having that support at work can make a difference.
Why staff retention matters for UK employers
When someone leaves, the cost goes beyond recruiting their replacement. There’s the time spent covering the role, the loss of experience and knowledge, and the time it takes for a new employee to settle in.
High staff turnover can also affect the wider team. Workloads can increase, morale can suffer and valuable knowledge can be lost.
For UK employers, improving retention is therefore about more than keeping people happy. It’s about maintaining an experienced workforce and avoiding the disruption that comes with constantly replacing staff.
Our breakdown of the business case for investing in reproductive health and employee benefits looks at this in more detail, including the impact reproductive health challenges can have on absence.
How do employee benefits affect staff retention?
Employee benefits won’t automatically make someone stay. What they can do is show employees that their employer understands that life doesn’t stop when they walk into work.
When people feel supported through important or difficult periods in their lives, it can strengthen their relationship with their employer and give them another reason to stay.
That’s why there’s a difference between offering benefits because they look good on a list and offering benefits that people can use when they need them.
Free snacks and a nice office might be appreciated, but they don’t offer much help to someone attending fertility appointments, dealing with a health condition or balancing work with caring responsibilities.
The benefits that matter are often the ones that make everyday life easier, particularly when someone is going through a difficult period.
Which employee benefits do UK staff value?
There isn’t one benefits package that will suit every organisation. What employees value will vary, but several areas continue to be important:
Flexibility and hybrid working: Being able to manage where and when work takes place can make a significant difference, particularly for employees managing medical appointments, treatment or caring responsibilities.
Financial wellbeing support: Pensions, salary sacrifice schemes, financial education and other forms of financial support can help employees feel more secure when household finances are under pressure.
Health and wellbeing support: Private medical insurance, dental cover, physiotherapy and access to other healthcare services can give employees more options when they need support.
Mental health support: Counselling, employee assistance programmes and other forms of mental health support can give people somewhere to turn when they’re struggling.
Family and reproductive health support: Fertility treatment, pregnancy loss, menopause and other reproductive health issues can all affect employees during their working lives. Yet this remains an area where many employers provide little or no formal support.
The most useful benefits aren’t necessarily the most impressive ones. They’re the ones employees can turn to when they need them.
How to choose employee benefits that are worth the investment
With budgets under pressure, employers need to think carefully about where their benefits spend will be most useful.
Start with what’s affecting your people. Exit interviews, absence data and employee surveys can highlight where people feel unsupported and where there may be gaps in your benefits package.
Consider who the benefit will support. A benefit doesn’t have to be relevant to everyone to be valuable. What’s important is understanding how many employees could use it and how significant that support could be when they need it.
Look at what you already offer. Some benefits, such as pensions and flexible working, are now standard. Other areas, including fertility and reproductive health, are less commonly supported.
Give it time and measure the results. Retention won’t necessarily change overnight after introducing a new benefit. Looking at employee feedback, absence and retention over time can give you a clearer picture.
Why reproductive health and fertility support can help retain staff
Fertility challenges and reproductive health issues often happen during the same years that people are developing their careers. This means employees can find themselves managing something deeply personal while also trying to keep up with work.
Someone going through IVF may have regular appointments to attend. Someone experiencing pregnancy loss may need time and support to recover. Someone experiencing menopause symptoms may be struggling with symptoms that affect their day-to-day life.
Without workplace support, employees can end up using annual leave for appointments, keeping their situation private or trying to manage everything themselves.
Research from the CIPD found that nearly 1 in 5 people experiencing fertility challenges have considered leaving their job. For employers, that’s an important indication of how fertility support can affect employee experience and retention.
Offering support doesn’t remove the difficulties someone is facing. It means employees don’t have to navigate them without support from their workplace.
That could include a clear policy, access to specialist resources, flexibility around appointments and a workplace culture where people feel comfortable asking for help.
We explore this further in why top talent chooses employers with fertility benefits, including the role reproductive health support can play when candidates are considering potential employers.
Build a benefits package that supports your staff
There isn’t one employee benefit that will keep everyone in an organisation. Retention is more likely to come from a wider package that recognises the different needs employees have, both inside and outside work.
That might mean flexibility, financial support, healthcare, mental health resources or support through major life events.
Reproductive health and fertility support for employees is one area that’s often still missing from UK workplace benefits. For employees going through fertility treatment, pregnancy loss, menopause or other reproductive health challenges, having that support available can make a difficult experience easier to manage alongside work.
The IVFN’s employer membership and Fertility in the Workplace programme give organisations practical ways to provide this support. If you’re reviewing your employee benefits and want to explore what reproductive health support could look like in your organisation, get in touch to find out more.
