Here's a question that should make every HR director uncomfortable: what percentage of your employee benefits package actually gets used?

If you don't know the answer, you're in good company – 73% of UK companies don't measure benefits engagement at all, according to Thanks Ben research. But here's what the data shows when anyone bothers to look: 72% of organisations report engagement as "low" or "average."

Let's do some uncomfortable maths. The average UK employer invests roughly £5,000 per employee annually in benefits beyond salary. If engagement sits at "low" – let's generously call that 30% utilisation – you're effectively spending £3,500 per person on perks they're not accessing.

Multiply that across your workforce and the waste becomes staggering.

Why Nobody's Using Your Wellness Benefits

Thanks Ben's 2024 research reveals the uncomfortable truth: 48% of companies with low benefit uptake blame "lack of employee interest." But that's not what's actually happening.

The problem isn't interest – it's accessibility and relevance.

The fragmentation problem – When benefits are scattered across multiple platforms, each requiring separate logins, different processes, and varying eligibility criteria, the friction kills engagement. Your cycle-to-work scheme is on one platform. Retail discounts are elsewhere. Mental health support requires contacting a different provider. Each fragmented touchpoint is another reason not to bother.

The affordability paradox – Many benefits require upfront spending that's later reimbursed. When employees are financially stretched – and 56% currently are, according to Money and Pensions Service data – they can't afford to access benefits that technically have value. A 15% discount on gym memberships means nothing if you can't afford the 85% in the first place.

The relevance gap – Generic benefits packages assume everyone wants the same things. They don't. A 25-year-old renting in London has different priorities than a 45-year-old with school-age children in Yorkshire. When benefits don't align with actual needs, they go unused regardless of their theoretical value.

The Measurement Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's the most damning statistic: 73% of companies don't measure benefits engagement at all. They're spending thousands per employee with no idea whether anyone's actually benefiting.

This isn't an oversight – it's a systemic problem. When benefits are fragmented across multiple vendors and platforms, getting unified engagement data becomes nearly impossible. You might know that 40% of employees have registered for one platform, but have no idea if those same people are engaging with benefits on other platforms.

Without measurement, you can't optimise. You're essentially operating blind, continuing to fund benefits based on what seems like it should be valuable rather than what demonstrably is.

What Actually Drives Utilisation

Research on successful benefits programmes reveals some clear patterns:

Consolidation beats choice – Counterintuitively, fewer options presented through a single, intuitive platform dramatically outperform extensive catalogues across multiple systems. When employees can access everything they're entitled to in one place, engagement jumps.

Immediate value beats delayed rewards – Benefits that require complex processes, waiting periods, or reimbursement systems see dramatically lower uptake than those offering immediate value.

Financial flexibility beats specific perks – When given the choice, employees consistently prefer benefits they can apply to their actual needs rather than predetermined categories. The rise of flexible benefits shows this clearly – 49% of organisations offering flexibility see better engagement than rigid traditional packages.

Simplicity beats comprehensiveness – A well-designed platform with 20 accessible, relevant benefits will consistently outperform a complex system offering 200 options that nobody understands.

The ROI You're Missing

Let's return to our original calculation. If you're spending £5,000 per employee on benefits but only seeing 30% utilisation, you're getting £1,500 in actual value delivered.

Now imagine restructuring that same £5,000 into a consolidated platform with 100% utilisation because it's accessible, flexible, and immediately valuable. You're not spending more – you're delivering more than triple the actual benefit to employees.

The Department for Education notes that UK employers invest £42 billion annually in training (£1,530 per employee average). Benefits spending sits alongside that as a major HR investment. The question isn't whether you can afford to improve utilisation – it's whether you can afford to keep wasting 70% of your current spend.

Making Benefits Actually Work

The solution isn't adding more options or better communicating what's already available. It's fundamentally rethinking how benefits are delivered.

Successful benefits strategies now focus on:

• Platform consolidation – One place, one login, everything accessible

• Financial flexibility – Let people apply value to what they actually need

• Immediate accessibility – No complex claims processes or waiting periods

• Meaningful amounts – £5 in immediate value beats £50 in theoretical benefits you can't access

• Actual measurement – Track engagement and iterate based on what works

The Bottom Line

Hooray Health & Protection research shows that only 9% of workers were open to new benefit offers in 2024, down from 21% in 2022. Employees aren't rejecting benefits because they don't want support – they're rejecting complexity, irrelevance, and inaccessibility.

You're already spending the money. The question is whether you're actually delivering value or just ticking boxes on a benefits package that nobody uses.

When 73% of companies aren't measuring engagement and 72% report it as low when they do measure, we're not talking about isolated failures – we're talking about a systemic crisis in how employee benefits are designed and delivered.

The good news? This is fixable. But it requires admitting that more isn't better, choice isn't always empowering, and what looks good on paper often delivers nothing in practice.

Your employees aren't the problem. Your benefits architecture is.