Employee benefits benchmarking

Energise your benefits strategy with Howden Benefits IQ

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Benchmark your employee benefits in minutes

Employers today are under growing pressure to attract, retain and engage their people.

Whether you’re an SME or a larger organisation, one challenge remains the same: you need to ensure your benefits are competitive and compelling in a world where talent is in short supply.

To achieve this, you need to be as well-informed as possible, ensuring decision-making is robust. This is where benchmarking is invaluable, helping you gain insights from outside your organisation that, coupled with data from inside your organisation, make for smarter decisions.

Howden Benefits IQ is the tool that helps employers compare their offering to different segments of the UK workplace – by size, by sector and geography.

Howden Benefits IQ is the key to unlocking competitive advantage


It provides robust benefits benchmarking insights that help you:

  • Understand how your benefits stack up against employers you are competing against
  • Make better decisions about which benefits to change to drive competitive advantage
  • Provide insights to your key stakeholders to business case improvements to your offer

And Howden Benefits IQ is incredibly easy to use. Simply complete the benchmarking survey to gain access to insights about your programme and how that compares by size, sector and geography.

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How Howden Benefits IQ works

  • 1. Complete the survey

    Answer questions about your current benefits offering, including which benefits you offer to some or all of your employees, and to what level you fund them. Input your approach to flexible benefits, wellbeing and various leave policies for a fully-rounded view of your offer.

  • 2. Assess your insights

    Howden Benefits IQ benchmarks everything you input against all other respondents to the survey. This shows you how you rank for each benefit and as an overall benefits offer, while also showing you the distribution of benefit designs across the entire marketplace.

  • 3. Build your roadmap

    You get a personalised benefits benchmarking report, which you can then use to build a clear business case for changes that you know have real impact for your business and employees.

Take part to see how your benefits stack up

If you haven’t taken part yet, completing the survey is the first step. It takes around 10–15 minutes, and you can choose to complete it independently or with one of our experts.

Complete the benchmarking survey
Get in touch for guided completion of the survey

The benefits for your business

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For SMEs

Smaller businesses often need quick guidance and robust insights to support quick decision-making. As a proud champion of UK SMEs, Howden Benefits IQ helps you:

• Compete effectively for talent
• Make sure you're using budget wisely
• Support conversations with owners or boards using clear, independent evidence
• Build a benefits strategy that grows with your business

It’s a straightforward way to gain competitive advantage and enhance your employee experience.

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For corporates and larger organisations

Larger employers face greater complexity and growing expectations from their people to deliver a comprehensive range of benefits to support their health, wellbeing and lifestyle needs. Howden Benefits IQ enables you to:

• Validate decisions with credible, comparative data
• Engage senior stakeholders with clear, independent insight
• Ensure your benefits remain competitive and future-ready
• Strengthen alignment between your benefits offer and business strategy

It’s a powerful tool for designing and evolving a people-led benefits approach.

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Who is Howden Benefits IQ for?

• HR and Reward leaders shaping benefits strategies
• SMEs looking for clarity and direction on their benefits design
• Senior teams wanting stronger evidence for better decision-making
• Organisations preparing for growth, restructuring or new workforce strategies
• Employers who want to stay competitive within their sector and local market

Start benchmarking