Andrew Frobisher
The Companies and Industries with the Best Workplace Benefits
Striking a good balance between our work and personal lives is crucial to having a rewarding career. Finding this balance minimises conflict between our private and professional lives, allowing us to unwind in our free time and perform at our very best when on the clock.
It is therefore important to consider the work-life balance offered in different companies and industries when looking for your first graduate job. A company’s policy on flexible working, maternity and paternity leave, remote working, or annual leave can all have a big impact on your motivation, job satisfaction, and professional success.
To help make life easier, we have collected data on the benefits offered by the FTSE 100 constituent companies and ranked them according to how their employees rated the benefits on offer.
Top 20 companies in the FTSE 100 for employee benefits:
The Companies with the Best Benefits
Taking the top spot with the highest-rated benefits is The British Land Company with a score of 4.8 out of 5. One of the largest property developers in the UK and 98th largest of the FSTE 100 in terms of market cap, British Land’s main business is the development, management, and leasing of property within the UK.
Our two runners-up tied for second place, each with ratings of 4.6.
The first of these is Phoenix Group, a giant in the life assurance industry. Phoenix Group owns many well-known brands including SunLife and Standard Life and has offices across the UK as well as in Dublin and Frankfurt.
The second runner-up is another behemoth of property development, Land Securities Group, or Landsec. With a portfolio of iconic and memorable real estate including the West End’s Piccadilly Lights and the Westgate Oxford retail centre, Landsec has the 94th largest market cap of the FTSE 100.
Comparing Benefits Across Industries
While it’s great to know which of the biggest UK companies have the best-rated benefits, we thought it would be great to find out how industries compare when it comes to employee benefits and work-life balance.
We’ve categorised the FTSE 100 by industry and calculated the average score that each industry receives according to employee reviews of their benefits. To keep things simple, we’ve also grouped the benefits into sections that affect different parts of our work-life balance.
Insurance, Health & Wellness
In this category are benefits such as critical illness cover, income protection, health insurance, and dental insurance.
Taking the lead in the Insurance, Health and Wellness category are telecommunications companies, with a strong lead of over 5 points.
Financial & Retirement
This category looks at financial benefits such as a workplace pension plan, stock options, corporate ISA, and performance bonus.
The FTSE 100’s supermarket giants take the spot, earning the grocery category a score of 19.35. They’re closely followed by the Telecommunications industry on 18.9.
Family & Parenting
Various benefits which could impact your family are grouped here. These include flexible working, maternity and paternity leave, childcare vouchers, and the option to work from home.
Telecommunications scores another first place with a score of 26.2, while grocery and publishing take second and third respectively.
Vacation & Time Off
Grouped here are various types of time off, from annual leave and sabbaticals to sick pay and bereavement leave.
Here we see another win for the telecoms industry with a respectable score of 17.4. The publishing industry takes second place on 13.5.
Perks & Benefits
This category is made up of things that make life easier for employees or potentially save them a lot of money. This includes perks such as employee discounts, season ticket loans, gym memberships, and bike to work schemes.
Here we see a familiar sight with Telecomms taking first place, closely followed by the grocery sector. Publishing and fashion both continue to deliver strong ratings.
Professional Support
Being supported at work to become comfortable in our roles and motivated to progress is an important part of any job. Job training, professional development, apprenticeships and diversity programmes make up this final category.
The grocery sector claims the top spot with a score of 15.8, followed by the telecoms and fashion industries.
Summary
Everyone has a different idea in their mind of the perfect work-life balance. For some, it might mean flexible working hours and a bike to work scheme, while others might value parental leave and childcare vouchers.
The important thing is to consider what sort of working set-up would allow you to succeed in and enjoy your role, while not restricting your personal life. Before starting your new graduate scheme search, consider what work-life balance you want to achieve, consider this in your applications.
Methodology
We have collected data on the benefits offered by the FTSE 100 constituent companies and ranked them according to how their employees rated the benefits on offer. We used employee rating data from Glassdoor that score their employer’s overall benefits out of 5. We excluded any companies which did not have enough ratings to produce a credible average.
Then, we looked at the ratings for individual benefits within each company. We recorded the total score that each company received in each category of benefits. We then assigned each company an industry. We then found the average scores for companies from each industry within each category, allowing us to compare the benefits between industries.
Sources
Glassdoor Employee Ratings Data – glassdoor.co.uk
FTSE 100 Constituents – londonstockexchange.com
