How to Choose Employee Benefits People Actually Value

To choose employee benefits people value, ask workers to compare realistic packages, check whether existing benefits are easy to use, and study the alternatives employees consider when they leave. A wish list, market benchmark, or usage figure alone cannot show which benefit deserves the next dollar of a limited budget.

At BambooHR’s HR Virtual Summit 2026, Kelsey Tarp and Alex Bertin took a compensation conversation beyond salary ranges. Bertin observed that an employee asked whether they would like each of ten benefits may say yes to all ten. The employer still has to choose which benefits to fund. He described a trade-off exercise BambooHR had used to compare packages, and said paid time off came out as his workforce’s strongest preference at the time. BambooHR subsequently added holidays.

That is one organization’s result, not a recommendation that every employer add leave. The valuable move in the talk was the way the question changed: employees were asked which combination they preferred when they could not have everything.

Why does a benefits wish list give an incomplete answer?

A benefits wish list shows which offerings people like in isolation. It cannot rank their value when pay, leave, flexibility, and other support compete for the same budget. Tarp and Bertin warned that a market benchmark answers a different question, what other employers offer, while a usage report only covers benefits already available.

An employer can use all three sources without asking any one to decide the package. SHRM’s 2026 benefits survey shows how HR professionals benchmark offerings across categories such as health, leave, retirement, and flexible work. It measures employer practices and priorities, not which mix one company’s employees would choose.

Ask what employees would give up to gain a proposed benefit. A person may welcome a wellness app at no personal cost yet choose more predictable leave over that app when the alternatives are real. That answer tells HR more about priorities than another “would you use it?” checkbox.

How can employers measure benefit preferences more clearly?

Employers can present employees with several realistic packages that vary pay, leave, flexibility, and other features, then examine which combinations people choose. Bertin called this conjoint analysis and described showing employees repeated package choices. The method can expose relative priorities, provided the options are understandable, affordable, and relevant to the workforce being surveyed.

His paid-time-off finding surprised his team. It guided a change at BambooHR, but its importance lies in the method, not the rank of that one benefit. A manufacturing shift worker, a remote parent, and an early-career specialist may face different constraints. Bertin advised reviewing groups separately and refreshing data as the workforce changes rather than treating a years-old preference survey as permanent.

Our piece on caregiving and workforce strategy explains why flexibility, predictable hours, and leave can solve different problems for people with care responsibilities. A single average preference can conceal those differences. Segment the results carefully enough to see them, while avoiding the assumption that everyone in a demographic group wants the same thing.

What does low use of an employee benefit mean?

Low use of a benefit can mean low demand, poor awareness, or an access problem. Tarp suggested trying to use the benefit as an employee would. Her example was an employee assistance program: if someone in a difficult moment cannot find a relevant resource or reach it easily, low uptake says little about whether the underlying support is valuable.

Look at how the benefit is explained, eligibility rules, the steps to use it, and whether people can use it without a manager’s permission or stigma. The Pew Research Center found that 46% of surveyed US workers with paid time off took less than they were offered. That does not mean leave had little value to them; workers gave reasons including concern about falling behind. Use and value are different questions.

How should HR decide which benefits to fund?

HR should combine employee choices, access and usage evidence, the employer’s budget, and the options candidates and leavers actually have. Bertin asked where employees go after leaving and what those employers offer. Tarp urged teams to explain the trade-offs behind the final package and connect employee input to any change made.

The decision may be to improve access to an existing benefit, fund a different one, or keep a valued benefit that a simple usage count would have cut. Publish the reasoning in plain terms: what employees prioritized, what the organization could fund, and when it will review the choice again. Our article on employee listening and follow-through explains why workers need to see what their input changed. They may disagree with the result, but should be able to see how their preferences were considered and whether the promised benefit works when they need it.