With many industries now offering more flexible working options, it’s never been more important to offer a competitive benefits package.

Summary

• The team at Vestd analysed which UK industries have the best employee benefits packages, and which were underperforming. 
• The motoring and automotive industry came out on top, with an index score of 704 out of 2000, marking it as the UK industry with the best benefits package. 
• The scientific sector was ranked as the industry with the most work to do, following a score of just 210 out of 2000. 
• The most popular employee benefit perks offered across UK industries were flexible working and bonus schemes.  

Offering an attractive employee benefits package has never been so important for employers. 

The rise of ‘total compensation package’, or TCP, on job adverts is a sign of employees seeking to understand more about their overall remuneration beyond their salary. 

Research by TotalJobs found that two-thirds of candidates would forgo a pay rise in exchange for more flexible working hours. 

Alarmingly, the same research found that almost a quarter of UK employees are currently unhappy with their benefits package. 

With employers locked in a war for the best talent, falling behind the competition in your offering or failing to shout about your best benefits could leave you at a major commercial disadvantage. 

However, choosing a winning benefits package is far from straightforward. In a rapidly changing jobs market, candidates’ demands are constantly shifting, and it’s not surprising that some employers are finding it difficult to establish incentives that hit the mark. 

Which industries offer the best benefits?

To find out, the Vestd team analysed the figures to create a comprehensive index of employee benefits. 

We crunched the numbers from more than 130,000 jobs listed on Reed, one of the UK’s biggest jobs boards. Our experts searched for 20 different incentives in job descriptions and filtered the results by industry. 

We took the number of jobs listed for each benefit per sector and divided that by the total number of jobs currently listed in the UK on Reed. This calculation gave us the percentage of jobs in each sector offering each specific benefit. 

In order to create our Employee Benefits Index, we gave each industry a weighted score out of 100 for each benefit, based on the proportion of jobs offering the incentives and totalled the scores to give an overall ranking. 

The industries with the highest scores have the best benefit packages. 

As part of our analysis, we compared the following sectors: 

• Education
• Accountancy
• Social care
• Legal
• Transport and logistics
• Engineering
• Strategy and Consulting
• Health and Medicine
• Construction and property
• IT and Telecoms
• Admin, Secretarial and PA
• Financial Services
• Hospitality and Catering
• Retail
• Sales
• Manufacturing
• Customer service
• Recruitment Consultancy
• General Insurance
• HR
• Estate agency
• Marketing and PR
• Motoring and Automotive
• Banking
• Energy
• Charity and Voluntary
• Security and Safety
• FMCG
• Leisure and tourism
• Media, Digital and Creative
• Scientific
• Purchasing

We also searched for the following common benefits in job descriptions: 

• Employee share schemes
• Hybrid/flexible Working
• Cycle To Work
• Private Medical Insurance
• Subsidised Gym Membership
• Bonus
• Life Insurance
• Employee Discount
• Income Protection
• On-site parking
• Referral Programme
• Dental Insurance
• Company Car
• Enhanced Paternity Leave
• Enhanced Maternity Leave
• Bereavement Leave
• Profit Sharing
• Health & Wellbeing Programme
• Four Day Week

Employee Benefits 2025

Employee Benefits Index - top ten Industries

The motoring and automotive sector raced ahead of the competition to offer the best employee benefits. 

Our analysis of more than 1,600 vacancies in the sector found that a bonus scheme was the most popular incentive for jobs in this industry. 

The second and third most popular benefits, in a sector where major employers like Enterprise, Renault and Halfords are hiring, were cycle-to-work schemes and a company car - reflecting the different ways employees like to get to their jobs. 

The second-best industry was customer service, which scored highly for company bonuses, flexible working and cycle to work schemes. 

Rounding off the top three industries was hospitality and catering, which scored 660, closely followed by security and safety and the social care sector. 

The ten industries with the most work to do

At the bottom of the table, the scientific industry was ranked as the industry with the most work to do for employee benefits offering, with a final index score of just 210. 

With over 500 present job openings, companies within the sector were found to rely heavily on benefits such as flexible working (offered in 19% of listings) and bonus schemes (18%) to attract top talent. 

Yet, more progressive company perks, such as profit sharing, bereavement leave, and a four-day working week found to be offered in most other sectors, remained notably absent across the scientific job board. 

The media, digital, and creative industry ranked the second-worst performing for benefits with an index score of just 215. 

Strikingly, it was the only industry where no job listings included enhanced maternity leave, and none offered enhanced paternity or bereavement leave either. This is despite recent findings revealing that 65% of workers consider current statutory parental leave provisions to be inadequate. 

The education sector also fell short, earning an index score of only 229. Despite having over 19,500 vacancies currently open, the highest number of openings across all industries, its benefits packages remained limited. 

Flexible working appeared in just over 28% of job listings, but other in-demand perks such as health & wellbeing programmes, cycle-to-work schemes, and profit sharing were scarcely available.   

Elsewhere, the accountancy, marketing & PR, and purchasing sectors rounded out the 10 lowest-performing industries for employee benefits, emphasising a clear need for improvement in how these fields attract and retain talent. 

This trend is underscored by findings from Vestd’s Employee Retention Report, which revealed that marketing, IT, education, and healthcare all ranked among the lowest sectors for employee tenure. Marketing, in particular, recorded the shortest median tenure at just 2.8 years, the lowest of all industries analysed.

These figures critically underscore the need for competitive benefits, especially investment in long-term incentives designed to boost retention and improve talent loyalty.  

So, when it comes to offering a company share scheme, including the links of growth shares, unapproved options or an EMI scheme, which industries are leading the way?

Top ten industries offering share schemes

Dominating in the overall rankings, the motoring and automotive industry also led the way in providing company share scheme options to employees, with a perfect score of 100. 

Close behind was the security and safety sector, scoring 98 out of 100. In combination with the sector’s high ranking for overall benefits, this reflects a strong commitment to long-term incentives by companies to retain top talent.  

More unexpectedly, the retail industry secured third place with a score of 66, an indication that even traditionally high-turnover sectors are starting to recognise the value of equity-based retention schemes. 

Employee share schemes - the industries falling behind

At the other end of the scale, several major industries are notably underperforming when it comes to offering employee share schemes, and are potentially missing out on the opportunity to invest in long-term staff retention. 

Education ranked last, indicating no evidence of share scheme offerings across its wide number of job listings. Health and medicine followed closely behind with a score of just 1, while creative sectors like media, digital, and creative, along with social care, each scored just 3 out of 100. 

Despite operating in highly competitive job markets, professional service industries such as legal, IT and telecoms, marketing and PR, and accountancy all scored below 10, suggesting an urgent need to implement a more strategic benefits offering, such as equity-based incentives.   

Ifty Nasir, Founder and CEO of Vestd, commented on the research: 

Despite growing awareness of the importance of employee benefits, too many organisations still view benefit packages as a cost hit rather than a strategic investment. But when you consider the ROI of a well-designed employee benefits package, chiefly in improving retention and employee engagement, the financial need is clear.

“Our latest Employee Benefits Index shows that sectors offering long-term incentives like EMI schemes also outperform in overall benefits, and are better equipped to attract and retain talent. In contrast, industries such as education and healthcare, where share schemes are largely absent, rank among the lowest for both benefits provision and employee retention. 

“With National Insurance contributions on the rise, turning to equity-based schemes also works as a tax-efficient alternative to pay rises or bonuses. In doing so, companies that invest in their benefits provision and long-term incentives are not just supporting their teams, but are strategically safeguarding their bottom line and protecting their long-term stability in a tough economic climate.” 

View the research in full

Methodology

Vestd used the job search engine Reed, to search for 20 common benefits found in job descriptions, and filtered the search by industry.

We then took the resulting number of jobs listed and divided this by the number of total number of jobs currently listed in the UK on Indeed. The resulting percentage gives us an indication of how often a specific job benefit appears on a job description within that industry.

In order to create the overall ranking, we gave each industry a weighted score out of 100 for each benefit, based on the proportion of jobs offering the incentive and totalled the scores to give an overall ranking. The higher the score, the better the benefits packages offered in that industry.