What Is The UK’s Best Employee Discount Scheme 2024?

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14/11/2022
7 mins

It’s a known fact that money worries are one of the leading causes of stress in employees. And with prices constantly rising this isn’t about to change any time soon.

As a business you will want to help improve your employees financial wellbeing, but what can you do?

It isn’t possible to give everyone a pay rise, but you can help stretch your employees income further. This can be done by giving them access to online and in-store discounts via a discounts scheme.

There are many schemes available so knowing which is right can be difficult. We’ve put together the below guide so you can find the best employee discount scheme for you and your employees.

What Are Employee Discount Schemes And Why Are They Important?

An employee discount scheme is a benefit offered to employees alongside their salary. It gives them access to a range of unbeatable savings across different retailers all year round.

This can be anything from discounted gym memberships, low cost cinema tickets or savings on everyday essentials.

Common Categories Of Retailers

  • Supermarkets
  • Fashion
  • Health and fitness
  • Restaurants and bars
  • Travel
  • Technology
  • Home and garden

Staff discounts are a cost effective benefit which can help save employees hundreds, if not thousands of pounds a year.

With such a range of discounts on everyday purchases, there is something for everyone. This means that your employees can make true savings on shopping they’d already be doing.

It’s not just great savings discount schemes offer either. They provide a great benefit that shows employees they are valued and appreciated.

Finding The Best Employee Discount Scheme For Your Company?

You want to make sure that you offer your staff the best possible discount scheme for the budget you have. This is why before putting one in place, it’s important to think about the following.

What Are You Trying To Achieve By Introducing Employee Discounts?

You need to think about why you are putting a discount scheme in place. Is it to:

  • help employees stretch their income further and help to reduce money worries?
  • do you want to encourage a healthy lifestyle and get people more active?
  • do you want to try and improve employee engagement?

Different schemes offer different discounts and features. Because of this it’s important to know what you want so that you don’t end up paying for things that you or your employees don’t use.

Knowing why you are implementing a scheme will also help you to measure its success later on.

How Much Is Your Budget?

Before looking at different discount schemes it’s good to have an idea of what your budget is. This will help you narrow down your search straight away.

Prices will vary from provider to provider. The higher the premium the bigger range of discounts available. It’s important to look at which scheme offers the best savings for your staff and budget.

What Savings Do Your Employees Want?

Get feedback from your staff to find out what kind of savings they would really enjoy. There is no point offering a scheme which offers discounts no one uses.

In the long run it can work out more cost effective to increase your budget and have a scheme that employees use a lot. If they have a benefit they really value, this can lead to them being more engaged and more productive.

Top Savings For Employees

Using a discount scheme employees can save thousands of pounds a year on everyday items.

Let’s take the weekly shop as an example. According to the Office For National Statistics, the average UK family spends around £103 a week on food. Thats an average of £445 a month and £5,345 over the course of a year.

With savings of up to 7% at leading supermarkets your employees could save £364 a year. This equates to almost four weeks of shopping for free.

Examples Of Some Of The Best Discounts Available*

It’s not just food shopping employees can save on either. Discounts are available on holidays, gym memberships, eating out, wellness services and more. We’ve provided some examples of the best discount scheme savings available below.

Employee Discount Examples

Retailer

Discounts

🛒  Food & Groceries

Up to 7%

🍔  Eating Out

Up to 12%

🚘   Motoring & Fuel

Up to 15%

👖 Fashion

Up to 25%

🍏  Health & Fitness

Up to 32%

✈️   Travel

Up to 15%

🍿  Days Out & Experiences

Up to 20%

*Discounts are taken from the My Drewberry savings calculator

It’s clear from the above, a discount scheme has the potential to help your employees income stretch that much further. You as an employer can also benefit from greater employee retention and increased loyalty. They can even help boost productivity.

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Best Ways To Provide Discounts To Employees

Different employee discount schemes offer discounts in different ways. Before deciding on a scheme it’s important to know what formats they offer as some are easier to use than others. Formats include:

  • Online cash-back
  • Digital vouchers
  • Reloadable gift cards
  • Discount codes

It’s important to get the views of your team when it comes to which format they would prefer as some are easier to use than others.

Reloadable gift cards for example have to be physically delivered to an employee. This means that although they may provide a bigger saving, they can’t be used straight away. Whereas online cash-back might offer 1-2% less discount but can be used immediately.

Getting the best discounts

The discounts on offer will vary from provider to provider. Because of this its good to do some research before signing up to a platform.

You want to make sure that the discounts on offer are ones your employees will actually use. For example, if your staff want to save money on their weekly shop, you might choose a provider with the biggest supermarket discounts. Or, if they are very health conscious you may want to offer a wider range of gym and nutrition savings.

The important thing here is to have a conversation with your staff. Make sure you understand what they want so you can provide a benefit which makes a real difference. Not only will your employees be able to make big savings, they will also feel valued and appreciated.

What Makes A Great Discount Scheme?

Implementing an employee discount scheme should be easy for you as an employer to set up. Not only this, your staff should find it simple and easy to use.

The best employee discount scheme providers should do all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to set up. Once you have provided them with details on who you want to access the scheme your job should pretty much be done.

Great user experience

The best schemes will also offer your staff a great user experience. This is often in the form of an online platform, which your staff should be able to easily navigate.

The easier the platform is to use, the more your employees will use it. The more your employees use it, the more engage they will become. This can also help with staff retention and attracting other top talent.

Fair Terms And Conditions

When deciding which is the best employee discount scheme for your company, you need to consider the terms and conditions that come with it.

  • Are they easy to understand?
  • What is the notice period for cancelling?
  • Are there any fees for early termination?

Before agreeing to anything it’s always a good idea to speak with the provider you have chosen. This way you can ask any question you may have and ensure you know exactly what you are signing up for.

Flexibility

When it comes to discount schemes it’s important to understand how flexible they are. For example you might want a platform that can be white labelled to align with your branding. Or, you might want one that allows you to easily add other benefits to and that has HR functionality.

The best employee discount schemes will give the flexibility to do this. They will provide you with a platform that you can tailor and mould to fit with your specific needs.

They will also give you the functionality to add and remove employees easily.

Great Communication

There is no point in offering a great benefit if no one knows about it. As soon as you have your discount scheme set up you need to make sure you tell your employees and then keep telling them.

The best way of communicating any employee benefit is to send clear and regular messages. To do this effectively you need to have a plan which outlines what your message is, how you will deliver it and when.

There are plenty of opportunities to get your messages across, these include:

  • Emails
  • One to ones
  • Interviews
  • Staff meetings
  • Intranet notices
  • Annual pay reviews

Compare 7 Best Employee Discount Scheme Providers UK 2022

To help you find the right discount scheme we have listed some of the best providers below.

When researching keep in mind what you want a scheme to offer as well as the discounts your staff would want.

Our platform My Drewberry offers an all-in-one solution for employee benefits. Employees can access hundreds of discounts for leading retailers via the Drewberry portal.

Our flexible portal gives employers the option to add other additional benefits too. This includes things such as their corporate pension, death in service, group health insurance, holiday exchange and salary sacrifice benefits.

People Value Logo

People Value is a leading provider of employee reward and recognition benefits. They offer a discount scheme which provides a wide range of savings across various different retailers.

Reward Gateway logo

Reward Gateway is a well established global employee discount scheme provider. It has access to a large range of savings for your employees to boost their income.

Perkbox logo

Perkbox offers a large range of discounts and perks for employees, all available online or via a mobile app for your staff to use on the go.

Staff Treats logo

Staff Treats operates on a monthly subscription basis, per employee. It offers discounts on high street brands and is great for those who enjoy saving money on luxuries and treats such as tech, fashion and evenings out.

Sodexo logo

Sodexo offers a range of options that are categorised into:

  • employee benefits
  • incentives
  • recognition and rewards.

Discounts are offered in the form of eVouchers, gift cards and cash-back cards, which can be accessed via a dedicated mobile app.

Edenred logo

Edenred Savings offers an easy to use digital platform. This makes the discounts easy for you to put in place for your employees. Edenred also provide dedicated support via their customer service personnel.

Highstreet Vouchers Logo

Highstreet Vouchers offers a range of discount formats. These include one-off reward gift vouchers, bulk purchase gift cards, digital gift cards and rewards schemes.

Avantus logo

Avantus Employee Benefits offers discounts and benefits for employees via three flexible platforms. These include FlexGenius, perkpal and Benefit Select, so you can choose the one that best suits the needs of your staff and your company.

Compare Employee Benefits Quotes and Get Expert Advice

If you’re looking to start an employee benefits package from scratch, or just want to add a new benefit to your existing scheme, it can be challenging. Thats where Drewberry comes in.

Being experts in this field we can do all the heavy lifting for you. Whether you want to set up an effective reward scheme, review your workplace pension, or protect your workforce, we can help.

Why Speak to Us?

We started Drewberry™ because we were tired of being treated like a number.

We all deserve a first class service when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

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