Most DEI strategies focus on hiring, progression and culture. Benefits rarely get a mention. Yet for many employees, the benefits package is one of the clearest signals of whose needs the organisation considers.
The CIPD's Reward survey 2026 shows why that matters. Among large employers that offer private medical insurance, only half make it available to everyone. The rest link eligibility to grade, seniority, location or pay. And just 27% of large employers look at equality, diversity and inclusion metrics when they review whether their benefits are working. This means gaps in how different groups access or use benefits can go unnoticed.
This guide explains what DEI benefits are, where standard packages tend to leave people out, and how to bring your benefits in line with your DEI goals.
DEI benefits aren't a separate product category. The term describes a benefits package that people across your whole workforce can genuinely use, whatever their contract, pay level, family setup, age, faith or health. In the UK, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is often called EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion), but the idea is the same.
In practice, DEI benefits cover two things:
Reviewing access and eligibility is a good place to start before adding more targeted benefits.
Policies and training describe how an organisation intends to treat people. Benefits show how those intentions work in practice. If a part-time employee can't join the health scheme or a shift worker can't reach the benefits portal, DEI messaging alone won't address that experience.
There's a regulatory reason too. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers with 250 or more employees can now publish a voluntary equality action plan alongside their gender pay gap data. Subject to secondary legislation, these plans will become mandatory from spring 2027. So employers will need to show the steps they’re taking to address gender pay gaps and support employees experiencing menopause. Leave, flexible working and health support all have a role to play in these support plans.
Exclusion is rarely deliberate. It usually comes from rules set years ago for a workforce that has since changed.
If you try to make a whole package ’more inclusive’, it difficult to know where to start. Take the priorities your DEI strategy already names, such as retaining women with young children, or helping part-time staff progress. Then ask which benefits affect those groups directly.
That gives you a short list to review first, rather you having to audit every benefit at the same time.
List each benefit alongside its eligibility criteria, such as hours, length of service, contract type, grade, location and pay band. Then test each rule with two questions: who does this exclude, and could we explain why to the people affected?
Rules that fail the second question should be the ones you review first. Some changes cost almost nothing, such as simplifying eligibility rules or making information easier to access. Others, like extending health cover beyond senior grades, need proper budget modelling before you commit.
Overall uptake figures can look healthy while hiding large gaps. Break usage down by the groups your DEI priorities focus on, then look at the reasons behind any differences.
If a group with lower uptake also has low awareness of the benefit, you may have a communication problem. Change how and where you promote it. If awareness is similar but uptake still differs, look at access and design, including the eligibility rules, the sign-up process and the benefit itself.
Use anonymised, aggregated data, and agree a minimum group size before reporting, so no individual can be identified.
Adding a new benefit can seem like an obvious solution. But if employees face the same barriers to accessing it, uptake may remain uneven. Fix access first:
Start with whichever barrier affects the largest number of people.
If you employ 250 or more people, review the government's list of recommended actions and note where your benefits already contribute. One recommended action is to include information about leave policies in job adverts. This creates a direct link between your benefits and your gender pay gap work. For menopause support, health benefits, an employee assistance programme (EAP) and flexible working can complement actions such as manager training about menopause and workplace adjustments.
Employers with fewer than 250 employees won't be covered by the mandatory action plan requirements, but can still use the list as a practical checklist.
Broad messages about benefits won't always be relevant to everyone. Consider communicating around specific needs and life situations, such as returning from parental leave, becoming a carer, approaching retirement or switching to night shifts. This can make it easier to show employees which support is relevant to them.
Add benefits uptake by group to your regular DEI reporting, and add DEI measures to your annual benefits review. Reviewing the data together can make it easier to spot gaps that might otherwise be missed.
Keep it simple. Track the gaps you found in step 3 and check whether they've narrowed a year later.
Four changes that make a package fairer without rebuilding it from scratch:
FlexGenius brings your benefits together in one employee benefits platform that employees can access from any device. You can set eligibility for individual benefits, send targeted communications to specific employee groups and see how employees use their benefits. This makes it easier to identify gaps in access and engagement, and to act on them.
Want to see it in action? Book a demo or download the brochure.