A strong employee benefits package has always been a powerful hiring and retention tool, helping to differentiate employer brands in a competitive talent market.
But with salary increase budgets flat for most companies, and employees expecting benefits that reflect their own lives rather than a generic list of perks, getting benefits right matters more than ever.
So what are tech companies actually changing in their benefits packages – and what does a competitive offer look like in each market? Here are the biggest employee benefits trends from Ravio's 2027 Compensation Trends report, based on live benefits data from 1,600+ companies and a survey of 142 People and Reward Leaders.
Quick answers: employee benefits trends in 2026
Just looking for the data? Here’s the TLDR:
Source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027 – live data from 1,800+ companies, plus a survey of 152 People and Reward Leaders.
Some of the most widely offered employee benefits include extra holiday beyond the statutory minimum (on average, 91% of companies across the six markets), social events (62%), company training (60%) and private health insurance (48%).
But what's "popular" depends heavily on where you hire.
Private health insurance is offered by 99% of companies in France but just 5% in the Netherlands, for example (source: Ravio dataset, 2026).
% of companies offering, 2026 | Europe average (6 markets) | UK | Germany | Netherlands | France | Spain | Sweden |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Enhanced holiday (above statutory minimum) | 91% | 97% | 99% | 99% | 84% | 90% | 77% |
Social events | 62% | 57% | 62% | 73% | 66% | 47% | 65% |
Company training | 60% | 53% | 61% | 61% | 73% | 52% | 60% |
Private health insurance | 48% | 62% | 11% | 5% | 99% | 68% | 42% |
Home office allowance | 42% | 44% | 39% | 51% | 37% | 41% | 37% |
Professional development fund | 31% | 37% | 40% | 39% | 21% | 26% | 25% |
Life insurance | 17% | 24% | 1% | 3% | 19% | 6% | 47% |
Dental cover | 13% | 27% | 3% | 2% | 15% | 28% | 2% |
Vision cover | 13%* | 18% | n/a | 2% | 15% | 14% | 14% |
The gaps between markets usually come down to what the state already provides. Germany and the Netherlands have far lower rates of private health, dental and life cover, where statutory systems do more of the work – while in France the figure is close to universal. The more consistent benefits across markets are the ones that aren't tied to local law: company training (52-73%), social events (47-73%) and home office allowances (37-51%).
Two-thirds of companies (66%) plan no changes to their employee benefits in the next 12 months.
Where companies are changing, they're far more likely to add to their offering (20%) or make it more personalised (11%) than cut back (3%) (source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
That stability fits a wider pattern: across equity, variable pay, and benefits, around two in three companies are leaving their total rewards approach untouched this year.
Is your benefits offering changing in the next 12 months? | % of respondents |
|---|---|
No change | 66% |
Increasing the offering | 20% |
Making benefits more personalised/flexible (e.g. benefits allowance) | 11% |
Reducing the offering | 3% |
Among companies planning changes, the most common theme is aligning benefits with the market (24%) – ahead of adding specific new benefits like pension, parental, or health cover (15%) (source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
Benchmarking benefits is harder than benchmarking salary, because what's competitive varies so much by country – as the data below shows. See our guide to employee benefits benchmarking tools for how to approach it.
What benefits changes are planned? | % of respondents |
|---|---|
Aligning with market / competitiveness / benchmarking | 24% |
Specific new benefit added (pension, parental, health, etc.) | 15% |
Personalisation / flexibility / employee choice | 12% |
Wellbeing (mental health, financial wellbeing) | 12% |
Geographic expansion (new office / country / EOR transition) | 12% |
Retention / attraction driver | 5% |
M&A / harmonisation across the business | 2% |
11% of companies plan to make their benefits more personalised or flexible next year – for example, with a benefits allowance employees can spend on what matters to them – and personalisation is one of the top themes among companies making changes (12%).
Petra Skoglund, Strategic HR Advisor, thinks many companies are still looking at benefits the wrong way.
"Many companies are way too fixed, looking blindly at the sum benefits value per employee, when they should be looking at the experience of each individual," she says. "A mature company moves towards an experience-based approach to benefits rather than one-size-fits-all."
For more on how to do it, see our guide to personalised benefits.
Wellness is one of the three areas companies flagged as a focus for benefits changes – but what's typical differs dramatically by country.
Sweden and Germany stand out for fitness allowances (89% and 61%), while France (53%) and Spain (56%) are the only markets where most companies offer no wellness benefit at all (source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
The UK is the clear leader for Employee Assistance Programmes (36%), while mental health subscriptions are most common in the Netherlands (33%) and the UK (30%).
Wellness benefits offered, 2026 | None | Employee Assistance Programme | Fitness allowance / gym | Mental health subscription | Wellbeing coach | Health days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK | 25% | 36% | 30% | 30% | 7% | 12% |
Germany | 24% | 9% | 61% | 26% | 6% | 6% |
Netherlands | 39% | 5% | 29% | 33% | 13% | 5% |
France | 53% | 2% | 33% | 19% | 8% | 2% |
Spain | 56% | 4% | 30% | 20% | 5% | 5% |
Sweden | 6% | 9% | 89% | 25% | 4% | 3% |
Family benefits like childcare support and fertility cover are much less common than wellness benefits – and least common where statutory parental leave is already strong.
90% of companies in the Netherlands and 87% in Sweden offer no additional family benefits (source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
It's a good reminder of why benefits need a per-location view – a gap in one market may simply reflect strong statutory provision in another.
The UK is the most likely to offer family benefits, with 14% offering childcare salary sacrifice.
Family benefits offered, 2026 | None | Childcare salary sacrifice | Childcare assistance | Fertility support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
UK | 63% | 14% | 3% | 5% |
Germany | 74% | 4% | 8% | 1% |
Netherlands | 90% | 0% | 1% | 2% |
France | 81% | 0% | 11% | 5% |
Spain | 72% | 9% | 9% | 3% |
Sweden | 87% | 2% | 4% | 0% |
Pension is the third area companies flagged for changes.
Pension approaches vary considerably because of local law, but in the UK almost half of tech companies (46%) offer employer contributions above the statutory minimum – most commonly 5% (20% of companies) (source: Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
UK employer pension contribution | % of companies |
|---|---|
Statutory minimum | 54% |
4% | 11% |
5% | 20% |
6% | 5% |
7% | 2% |
8% | 3% |
9% | 1% |
10% | 4% |
Hybrid working remains one of the most widespread benefits in tech, offered by 72-96% of companies depending on the country.
But fewer companies are offering multiple working models than last year, and 17% of hybrid companies plan to move towards more office time. For the full data, see our guide to hybrid, remote, and in-office working models.
Companies offering hybrid working | % of companies 2025 | % of companies 2026 |
|---|---|---|
France | 96% | 96% |
Netherlands | 96% | 89% |
Germany | 89% | 81% |
Sweden | 75% | 81% |
Spain | 88% | 73% |
UK | 85% | 72% |
In our Reward Hours session on building a benefits strategy that's strategic, not accidental, Michael Cope and Paula Aragon (Senior Total Rewards Specialist at Storyblok) shared what they've learned from building and rebuilding benefits programmes.
A few key lessons:
Benchmark your benefits against the market
See market norms for every benefit type, side-by-side with your own package, in every location you hire.
The biggest trends are stability, market alignment, and personalisation. 66% of tech companies plan no benefits changes next year, but those that are changing are most often aligning benefits with the market (24%), adding specific benefits like pension, parental, or health cover (15%), or making benefits more personalised (12%) (Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
Among the benefits we looked at, some of the most widely offered are extra holiday above the statutory minimum (91% of companies on average across the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain and Sweden), social events (62%), company training (60%) and private health insurance (48%). Flexible working is also widespread, with hybrid offered by 72-96% of European tech companies. Among other benefits, it depends on the market: fitness allowances are offered by 89% of companies in Sweden and 61% in Germany, Employee Assistance Programmes are most common in the UK (36%), and 46% of UK companies offer enhanced pension contributions.
Very few. Just 3% of companies plan to reduce their benefits offering in the next 12 months, compared with 20% planning to increase it (Ravio Compensation Trends 2027).
Personalised (or flexible) benefits let employees choose the benefits that suit their own needs – often through a benefits allowance or a menu of options – rather than everyone receiving the same package. 11% of tech companies plan to make their benefits more personalised next year.
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Personalised benefits allow employees to select the employee benefits package that best suit their individual needs and circumstances, from a range of benefits choices available.
