Employee benefits uptake: why don't employees use them?

An employee assistance programme (EAP) sits in a lot of UK benefits packages, but very few employees use one. In one poll of 200 employers, 85% of those offering an EAP reported uptake of just 3% to 5%. More than a quarter of employees in the same research had no idea their EAP existed.

The gap goes well beyond EAPs. 34% of British workers don't use their workplace health benefits at all. For a small or mid-sized business, that's budget spent on support that doesn't reach the people it was bought for. Unused support also means employees miss help that could have kept them well.

When uptake is low, many HR teams respond by promoting their benefits harder: another all-employee email, a poster in the office kitchen, or a slide at the next company meeting.

Each of those reaches people once, and without relevance. Uptake stays low because the barriers sit further down: people forget what's there, the benefit doesn't fit their life, or getting to it takes too many steps.

The good news? Each barrier has a fix, and most of the fixes are small: an email to a provider, a question in an employee survey, or a 20-minute briefing for managers, with no new spend. 

Why don't employees use their workplace benefits?

Employees don't use workplace benefits mostly because they don't know what's available, can't see how a benefit fits their life, find it confusing to use, or don't want their manager or people team knowing they need support in the first place.

Awareness is the first gap. 43% of UK employees say they aren't aware of all the benefits their employer offers. You can't use what you don't know about.

Relevance is the second. In the EAP research above, low uptake is partly down to people not needing the service at that moment, and partly due to an offer that's built the same for everyone.

Friction is the third. If a benefit needs a form, a phone call, and a manager's sign-off, you'll lose people at each step. Some won't start at all, because they'd rather their manager or people team didn't know they needed help with their mental health, money, or fertility.

These three barriers to benefits use need different fixes. A launch email helps awareness for a while and leaves relevance and ease untouched.

Why does benefits awareness fade after onboarding?

Benefits awareness fades because benefits often get explained once, at onboarding, when new starters are taking in a lot of information and may not need support for months.

Both sides can see the gap. Just over half of UK workers say they fully understand their workplace benefits, and 39% of employers feel confident their people understand them.

Good workplace benefits communication follows the moments when people need support. A new baby. A bereavement. A house move. A stressful quarter. The dark months of winter. Better workplace benefits are a constant part of the conversation. A reminder that arrives in one of those moments is far easier to act on than an induction slide from two years ago.

Line managers matter here, because they're often the first person someone tells when life gets hard. A manager who knows what's on offer can point someone to the right benefit in a one-to-one. Yet only 29% of organisations train line managers in mental health.

For a wider view of what UK employees want from benefits this year, see the 2027 employee benefits trends report.

Why doesn't adding more benefits improve uptake?

A longer list of benefits won't lift uptake by itself, because more choice makes it harder for each person to find what fits them, and relevance is what gets a benefit used.

More choice can backfire, because the choice on offer can overwhelm some workers. A dad in his forties with a bad back and a 28-year-old saving for a flat need different things. Hand both the same catalogue and they're left to do the sorting themselves.

Personalisation does the sorting for them. Heka is a personalised, preventative, health-led benefits platform. Heka learns what each person needs from two signals: who someone is (role, life stage, and health goals) and what they do on the platform (bookings, health goals, searches, and wishlists). Then Heka puts the right support in front of each person at the right moment. Physio for one person. A sleep assessment for another. A fertility consultation for a third. You can see how Heka works step by step.

The same service gets used more when it reaches the right person. Virtual GP is a good example, because many employers already offer one. There's 47% higher Virtual GP usage when delivered through Heka.

Relevance shows up in retention too. Employees who feel their benefits meet their needs are 3x more likely to stay. The business sees anonymised patterns, and no individual is ever identified.

How much does friction cut employee benefit participation?

Friction holds back employee benefit participation even among people who want support, with more than half of British workers who use their health benefits reporting a barrier to access.

The barriers are mostly small. Among workers who use their health benefits, 16% had to ask their line manager for information or approval first, and 13% found the process too complicated. Each extra step gives someone a reason to give up.

Ask workers what would change things and the top answer is simple. In the same research, 37% said simpler benefits would make them most likely to use them. 19% would use them more if they didn't need time off for appointments.

So remove the approval steps wherever possible. Put support a tap away, on the phone people already carry. Heka users book directly with hundreds of vetted UK partners, using the credit their employer provides.

How can HR see which benefits people use?

HR can see which benefits people use by tracking uptake for each benefit separately, then reading anonymised patterns in what people book and search for over time.

Many smaller firms don't track usage yet, and that's understandable when HR is one person. Just 14% of SMEs use internal data to check benefits usage and effectiveness when changing their package, against 43% of large employers.

Without behavioural data, a benefits strategy is a guess. A well-meaning, well-funded, and well-marketed guess.

Heka's anonymised behavioural data tells you what your workforce needs before people have to ask. Mental health clusters. Financial pressure spikes. Fertility journey signals. The patterns flow back into your benefits strategy and your workforce planning. You see the picture, and the individual is never identified.

Don't have a platform yet? That's fine. Start small. Ask each provider for usage data every quarter, and add one question about benefits to your next employee survey. But remember, what your people say they need, and what they actually use are not always the same.

‍

Why does benefits uptake matter for absence and costs?

Benefits prevent illness and absence when people use them early, before a stressful month turns into a sick note or a sore back turns into a long-term injury.

Absence has been climbing. Employers report an average of 9.4 days of absence per employee per year, the highest in more than 15 years. Work-related stress, depression, or anxiety cost Great Britain an estimated 22.1 million working days in 2024/25.

Prevention is where Heka focuses. 98.5% of bookings on Heka are for preventative health, across categories such as mental health, nutrition, movement, and general health. People stay well instead of waiting until cover is the only option left.

Prevention shows up in health first, then in cost. 80% change a 'health behaviour' within six months of using Heka, and 4 in 5 employees report improved mental health. For businesses with private medical insurance (PMI), claims are one of the biggest factors at renewal. Heka customers see premiums fall 8% year after year. Read more on how to reduce private medical premiums without cutting cover.

What can HR change this quarter to lift uptake?

HR teams can lift uptake within a quarter by checking usage, briefing managers, cutting approval steps, and timing reminders to life moments, mostly with small, low-effort changes and no new spend. 

One caveat. Some benefits have low usage by design. A bereavement service used by two people last year may have mattered more than anything else on the list. Judge those by whether they were there when someone needed them.

High uptake on its own doesn't prove much either. Pair the figure with whether people come back, and whether absence or employee turnover moves over the year.

What's the first step to better employee benefits uptake?

The first step is finding out which of your benefits people use today, then fixing awareness, relevance, and ease for the ones that matter most to your team.

Low uptake is fixable. Awareness timed to life moments, benefits that fit each person, and fewer steps to booking all bring more people through the door. Fix those three barriers and the 34% of British workers who don't use their workplace health benefits at all becomes a number your business can move.

The right support, in front of the right person, at the right moment. That's what Heka does for each person on your team.

Book a demo to see Heka personalise benefits for your people, or get a quote for your business.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good employee benefits engagement rate?

There's no single UK benchmark for employee benefits engagement, because usage varies so much from one benefit to the next. Employee assistance programmes give a useful low bar: in one poll of 200 employers, 85% of those offering one reported take-up of just 3% to 5%. Track take-up for each benefit separately, watch the trend over a year, and compare it with what your employee survey says people need.

How often should HR communicate employee benefits?

Communicate benefits at the moments people need them, as well as on a steady rhythm. Onboarding, a new baby, a bereavement, a return from long-term absence, and the winter months are all good prompts. A short monthly reminder about one benefit, tied to something happening that month, gives people something specific to act on. One long annual email asks them to remember everything at once.

Do small businesses need a benefits platform to improve uptake?

A small business can lift uptake without new software by asking providers for usage data, briefing line managers, and cutting approval steps. A platform earns its place when you want personalisation and insight across the whole team. Heka for small businesses puts the right support in front of each person and shows the business anonymised patterns in what people need.

How can employers track benefits uptake without invading privacy?

Track anonymised, grouped data instead of individual records. Usage figures for each benefit, booking categories, and survey answers grouped by team all show where support is landing without naming anyone. Set a minimum group size before you report any breakdown, so nobody can be identified by elimination. For example, if only three people in your team are under 30, leave that group out of the report. Heka works this way: the business sees patterns, and no individual is ever identified.

Should we cut benefits that nobody uses?

Find out why a benefit goes unused before cutting it. Low usage can mean the benefit is poorly communicated, hard to reach, or a poor fit for your people. Some services, such as bereavement support, matter even when few people need them. Replace a benefit when people know about it, can reach it easily, and still choose not to use it.

‍