What Is The UK’s Best Employee Discount Scheme 2025?

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11/12/2024
7 mins

Worrying about money is one of the leading causes of employee stress in employees’ lives – stress that inevitably leaks into the workplace, affecting productivity, wellbeing, and work life balance.

As an employer, you might be wondering how you can improve your team’s financial wellness. And while it isn’t always viable to give everyone a big pay rise, there is a way to help employees stretch their income further: an employee discounts scheme.

There are many different schemes that offer exclusive employee discounts, so knowing which one is best for your business can be tricky. We’ve put together this guide so you can find the right employee discount scheme for you and your employees.

What Are Employee Discount Schemes?

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

These employee perks can range from discounted gym memberships, low cost cinema tickets, or savings on everyday essentials such as groceries.

Common Categories Of Retailers

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

What Are The Different Types Of Employee Discount?

Different employee discount schemes offer employee perks 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 cashback
  • Digital vouchers
  • Reloadable gift cards
  • Discount codes.

For example, reloadable gift cards provide big savings, but they have to be physically delivered to an employee, whereas online cashback might offer a smaller discount but can be used immediately.

Why Are Discount Schemes Important?

Staff discounts are a cost-effective benefit which can help save employees hundreds, if not thousands of pounds a year. These employee perks are a great addition to your benefits package, showing your team that you value and appreciate them.

Nick Nelms Senior Employee Benefits Consultant at Drewberry

You want to make sure that the discounts on offer are ones your team 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.

It’s a good idea to ask your employees what they’d prefer before choosing an employee discount program.

Nick Nelms
Senior Consultant, Employee Benefits

Finding The Best UK 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. Before committing to a scheme, ask yourself the following questions:

What’s The Main Goal Of Introducing Employee Discounts?

Do you want to help employees stretch their income further and help to reduce money worries? Maybe encourage a healthier lifestyle and get people more active? Or do you just want to improve employee satisfaction, work life balance, and company culture?

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

What’s Your Budget?

Agreeing a budget from the outset will help you narrow your search straight away. Prices vary depending on which scheme you go for – the more you pay, the bigger the discounts you’ll secure for your team.

What Savings Do Your Employees Want?

There’s no use implementing a reward scheme that your team won’t use. Get employee feedback around where they shop, and where they’d appreciate the biggest discounts. Do you have a large number of parents who’d really like bigger discounts on groceries and days out? Or do you have jetsetters who’d like to save on their holidays? Knowing this from the outset will help you make informed decisions – and boost your employee engagement at the same time.

Nadeem Farid Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry

Our Drewberry experts live and breathe employee perks, and can help you find the right scheme for your company culture.

We’ll do the heavy lifting for you while you focus on what matters. Give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk to find out your options.

Nadeem Farid
Head of Health & Wellbeing Benefits

Top Discount Savings For Employees

It’s not just vouchers and small savings: a discount scheme for your team can save them 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 household spends over £63.50 a week on food. That adds up to £3,302 over the course of a year – almost a tenth of the average annual UK salary.

With a discount scheme offering up to 7% off at the big supermarket chains, your employees could shave £231 off their yearly grocery bill – equating to almost four weeks of shopping for free.

Examples Of Employee Discounts Available

It’s not just groceries where employees can save money – many schemes offer discounts 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

A discount scheme has the potential to help your employees’ income stretch that much further – helping ease their money worries and increasing your employee engagement. Give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk to find out more.

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Key Features Of A Good Discount Scheme

A good staff discount scheme is one that employees will genuinely value and find easy to use. By offering relevant discounts, seamless accessibility, and a variety of options, the scheme can become a meaningful part of your benefits package. Below we’ve provided some of the key features to look out for.

Features To Look Out For

  • Broad Range of Retail Partners
    A great scheme should open the door to a world of savings across a broad range of categories, from everyday essentials like groceries to exciting perks such as travel, entertainment, dining, and lifestyle treats.
  • Regular Updates and New Offers
    Stale or outdated discounts can cause employees to lose interest. The best schemes keep things fresh by regularly adding new deals and offering discounts from popular brands.
  • Personalisation
    A great scheme recognises that no two employees are alike. Options to personalise the benefit, such as exclusive deals tailored to specific interests or preferences, add a personal touch that resonates with employees.
  • Good User Experience
    The best schemes will offer your team a great user experience – often in the form of an online employee discount platform, like My.Drewberry, which your staff should be able to easily navigate. Employees should be able to self-serve, without having to hassle HR.
  • Support and Communication
    Finally, strong customer support for both employers and employees is essential. A reliable provider should assist with setup, answer questions promptly, and provide resources to help communicate the scheme effectively to your team. Clear communication ensures employees understand the benefit and know how to use it.

Choosing the Right Discount Scheme: Key Considerations for Employers

Finding the right discount scheme isn’t just about what works for your employees—it also needs to work for your business. While it’s important to offer a benefit that your team will appreciate and use, the scheme should also fit seamlessly into your organisation, aligning with your budget, operational needs, and long-term goals. Before opting for a scheme it’s important to consider:

Workforce Demographics

The first step is to understand what your employees truly value. Consider conducting a survey or gathering feedback to identify the types of discounts that would make the biggest impact. For example, younger employees might prioritise retail and entertainment discounts, while others may favour savings on groceries or travel. Tailoring the scheme to your team’s preferences ensures it will be used and appreciated.

Scalability

Scalability is a vital consideration when choosing an employee discount scheme, particularly for organisations planning for growth or managing a workforce with fluctuating numbers. A scalable scheme ensures that as your business expands, the benefit can effortlessly accommodate more employees without compromising on quality or value. Whether you’re onboarding new staff or opening additional locations, the right scheme will adapt seamlessly to your needs.

Fair Terms And Conditions

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

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

Make sure to ask these questions of your provider before committing to anything.

Ease of Administration

A discount scheme should make life easier, not harder, for your HR team. Look for providers that offer straightforward onboarding processes, minimal day-to-day management, and robust customer support. A seamless experience for both employers and employees ensures the scheme runs smoothly.

Flexibility

When it comes to discount schemes, it’s important to understand how flexible they are. For example, do you want a platform that can be white labelled to align with your branding? Does it offer just discounts or can you add other employee benefits?

The best employee discount schemes will provide you with a platform that you can tailor and mould to fit with your specific needs, giving you the functionality to add and remove employees easily.

Integration with Existing Benefits

Many organisations already offer a variety of employee benefits, so the discount scheme should integrate seamlessly with any existing platforms or systems. This reduces administrative complexity and creates a cohesive experience for employees accessing their benefits.

Compare The Top 9 Employee Discount Scheme Providers UK 2025

To help you find the right employee discount program, we’ve compiled a list of the biggest providers in the UK. When researching, keep in mind what you need from a scheme, along with what discounts will motivate employees.

My.Drewberry offers an all-in-one solution for employee perks. Employees can access hundreds of discounts for leading retailers via their unique portal.

Our flexible platform gives you the option to add and manage your complete benefits suite, including Workplace Pensions, Group Life Insurance, Group Private Health Insurance, and Salary Sacrifice benefits such as Cycle To Work or Holiday Trading. Give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk to book a demo.

Boost Works logo

Boostworks is a leading provider of employee reward and recognition benefits. It offers a discount scheme which provides a wide range of savings across various different retailers.

Reward Gateway logo

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

Perkbox logo

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

Staff Treats logo

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

Edenred logo

Edenred Savings offers an easy-to-use digital platform. It also provides 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

Setting up and maintaining your employee perks requires a decent bit of admin, so it quickly becomes time consuming. We do the heavy lifting for you, giving you more time to focus on what matters.

We live and breathe employee benefits, doing this day in-day out for businesses just like yours. Looking at the bigger picture, we get to know your unique workforce and bench your offering against competitors.

Best of all? We have access to the most competitive rates on the market for core benefits such as Group Life Insurance, Group Health Insurance, and Group Critical Illness Cover. Give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

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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If you are unhappy with our service, we have a complaints procedure, details of which are available upon request. If you are unhappy with how your complaint has been dealt with, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS website is www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Drewberry Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Companies House No. 06675912

Drewberry Ltd registered office: Telecom House, Preston Road, Brighton, England, BN1 6AF. Telephone 0208 432 7333

Drewberry Ltd (Financial Conduct Authority No. 505473) is an Appointed Representative of Quilter Wealth Limited and Quilter Mortgage Planning

Limited, which are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

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