Types of Employee Benefits That Deliver the Highest ROI

Benefits renewal season circles back and somehow the numbers are worse than last year. Healthcare is up again. Employees are grumbling about what they’re not getting. And someone in finance is asking whether these benefits are worth their cost. Which, in their defense, is a fair question.

Not all employee benefits are created equal. Some quietly reduce turnover, improve productivity, and generate returns a CFO will actually care about. Others just look good in a job listing and slowly eat through the budget without much to show for it.

The difference between the two categories is ROI. Return On Investment. Meaning, are you getting back more than you're putting in? Figuring out which types of employee benefits actually deliver ROI is one of the most useful things an HR or benefits team can do right now.

The good news is that you do not have to guess. Decades of research across industries have identified the benefits that pay back the most in measurable, defensible ways. Whether you are building a program from scratch, auditing what you already have, or trying to make a case to leadership for more investment, knowing where the returns are strongest is the right place to start.

Key Takeaways

Health-related benefits are the highest-priority category for employers and consistently generate strong returns through reduced insurance claims, lower absenteeism, and better recruitment
Retirement benefits, especially those with an employer match, tend to punch well above their weight on ROI
Low-cost, high-visibility perks like employee discount programs keep the benefits package relevant year-round, making them one of the better ROI plays in the mix
Mental health support yields approximately a 4:1 return on investment for businesses
Replacing an employee costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary, which makes retention-focused benefits some of the clearest math in HR
Employees who understand and are satisfied with their benefits are 1.4x more likely to feel engaged and 1.2x more likely to be productive at work
Measuring benefits ROI requires tracking both hard returns (cost savings, reduced turnover) and soft returns (engagement, trust, morale)

What Types of Employee Benefits You Should Know About

The most common employee benefits fall into a few familiar buckets:

health insurance
retirement plans
paid time off
life and disability coverage

These are the baseline. Most full-time employees expect them, and employers who skip them are not really competing for talent in any serious way.

Beyond that core, the landscape has expanded considerably. The SHRM Employee Benefits Survey now tracks over 220 distinct benefits, up from 175 just a few years ago. That is a 23% increase in available options.¹ That growth reflects how much employee expectations have shifted.Understanding which benefits employees actually prioritize in the current environment is essential before deciding where to invest the employee benefits workers actually want paints a clear picture of where those expectations have landed. Employee discount programs have become a standout example of this expansion, giving employees real savings on everyday purchases without significant cost to the employer.

How to Build an Employee Benefit Plan That Pays Off

A strong employee benefit plan does two things well: it offers benefits employees actually want to use, and it generates returns the business can measure.

The basic ROI formula is simple enough. Subtract the total cost of the benefits program from the financial gains it produces: things like reduced turnover, healthcare savings, and productivity improvements, then divide by the total cost. The result shows whether the investment is working and where to optimize.

AdobeStock_2021339135 For wellness programs specifically, the data is compelling. Wellhub's 2024 Return on Wellbeing report found that 95% of companies that track the ROI of their wellness programs see positive returns, and nearly two-thirds of HR leaders reported a $2 return for every $1 invested in employee wellbeing.²

Mental health support is worth flagging here on its own. According to research from the National Safety Council and NORC at the University of Chicago, employers see a $4 return for every $1 invested in mental health treatment.³ That is not a soft ROI number. That is a business case. The broader statistical picture behind these returns is worth reviewing. Key employee benefit program stats every HR leader should know consolidates the data that makes this investment case to leadership most effectively.

Types of Employee Benefits With the Best ROI

Here are the employee benefits examples that research consistently identifies as the highest-return investments.

Retirement benefits. Employer-matched retirement plans are among the highest-ROI benefits available. These plans consistently rank among the highest-ROI benefits in research, largely because of their outsized effect on long-term retention and replacing an employee typically costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary.⁶

Health insurance. A study from Avalere Health found that employers earn an average ROI of 147% from health insurance programs, meaning they get $1.47 back in financial benefits for every dollar spent. Lower medical claim volumes, better recruitment outcomes, and reduced absenteeism all contribute to that number.⁷

Wellness programs. The RAND Corporation estimates an average return of $1.50 for every dollar invested in workplace wellness programs.⁴ A 2024 Vitality survey found an average savings of $462 in annual medical claims per employee engaged in wellbeing initiatives.⁵ Across a workforce of any meaningful size, that compounds quickly.

Employee discount programs. A well-designed perks program gives employees tangible, daily value like savings on dining, travel, groceries, entertainment, and more. And it does it AdobeStock_270048422 without the overhead of traditional benefits. For employers, it is one of the lowest-cost, highest-visibility benefits in the mix.

Tuition reimbursement and professional development. A Lumina Foundation study of Cigna's education reimbursement program found a 129% ROI, with participants 8% more likely to be retained than non-participants.⁹ Employees who feel they are growing tend to stay, which reduces the cost of turnover and keeps institutional knowledge from walking out the door. For new and growing businesses figuring out how to structure these offerings alongside other core benefits, a step-by-step guide to offering employee benefits covers how to sequence and prioritize these decisions without overextending the budget.

Paid family leave. Research consistently shows that generous paid family leave improves post-leave retention, particularly among new parents who might otherwise leave for competitors with better policies. Given that replacement costs typically run between 50% and 200% of annual salary,⁶ retaining employees who might otherwise leave for a competitor with better leave policies is not a small number.

Workplace Benefits That Keep People From Leaving

Retention is where workplace benefits earn their keep. The labor market has stayed competitive enough that at any given moment, a significant chunk of your workforce is at least passively open to leaving. In that environment, a benefits package is a competitive signal as much as a compensation tool.

The research consistently shows that employees who feel their benefits actually meet their needs are far more likely to stay and far more likely to trust their employer. That connection between visible employer care and retention is not subtle.

That is also where low-cost, high-visibility benefits earn their keep. Most benefits are invisible until someone needs them. A perks program like Access Perks is the exception. Employees notice it regularly, because it saves them money on things they are already buying. Discounts on dining, travel, groceries, and entertainment add up fast, especially when employees are watching what they spend. Work-life balance benefits have also become a real bargaining chip. A meaningful share of employees say they would trade salary for better work-life balance or greater schedule flexibility.⁶ When the cash budget is tight, well-designed leave and flex policies can do a lot of that heavy lifting.

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What Makes Employee Benefits Packages Actually Competitive

The bar for competitive employee benefits packages is higher than it was five years ago. According to MetLife's 2025 research, employees who understand and are satisfied with their benefits are 1.4 times more likely to feel engaged and 1.2 times more likely to be productive at work.⁸

A few design principles separate the programs that perform from the ones that just exist:

Leadership adoption matters more than most employers realize. If the C-suite is not visibly using the benefits, employees take notice and participation suffers. Model the behavior you want to see.
Communication is part of the product. Benefits that employees do not understand or cannot easily access do not generate returns, regardless of how thoughtfully they were designed.
Measurement closes the loop. Tracking utilization rates, retention trends, and changes to healthcare claims gives you the data to make a case for continued investment and to identify where the program is underperforming.The most effective packages are the ones where every benefit earns its place.
For a comprehensive look at the full benefits landscape heading into the next planning cycle, what to offer, why it matters, and how to start building your employee benefits program is a useful next resource

Ready to Make Your Benefits Program Work Harder?

The types of employee benefits that deliver the highest ROI aren't always the most expensive ones. They're the ones employees actually notice and use. Access Perks gives your team discounts averaging 34% off at 700,000+ locations nationwide, with clients seeing 350% higher employee registration rates and 4x higher redemption rates compared to programs without engagement emails. If you're building a benefits program that needs to perform, see what Access Perks can do for your team.