HR leaders are under more pressure than ever to justify the value of their employee benefits programmes, especially when working with tight budgets and small teams. As you’ll know all too well, the challenge isn’t just choosing the right mix of perks, it’s proving that those benefits are delivering real business outcomes.And yet, the stakes have never been higher. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report, employee stress remains near record highs, with 44% of workers worldwide reporting they experienced significant stress the previous day. Meanwhile, data from the CIPD shows that two in five UK organisations have seen a rise in employee mental health issues in the past year. What this tells us is that burnout isn’t a niche problem, restricted to certain industries. It's an everyday reality across all sectors and it’s affecting your team’s engagement, productivity and retention.At the same time, costs are rising. Aon’s 2025 Global Medical Trend Rates Report projects global healthcare benefit costs to rise by 10% this year, with even higher increases in some regions. That leaves HR departments facing a double-bind: mounting pressure to support employee wellbeing while controlling spend.But delivering impact doesn’t have to mean spending more. By focusing on preventative solutions and sustained engagement, HR teams can drive measurable results, even with limited resources.What ROI really looks like in today’s workplaceWhen HR teams talk about getting a return on their investment in employee benefits, it’s easy to assume they’re only referring to cost savings. But true ROI goes beyond the bottom line. It includes improvements in retention, reductions in absence rates, lower health insurance claims, increased productivity, and even a stronger employer brand.Let’s break that down:Retention: employees who feel well-supported are less likely to leave. And replacing an employee costs between 6–9 months of their salary, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Keeping great people longer is a major cost saver.Absenteeism and presenteeism: mental health-related absence remains one of the leading causes of long-term sick leave in the UK, according to the CIPD. If wellbeing support helps someone stay healthy—or come back sooner—it protects your business from lost productivity.Health claims: as healthcare costs rise, proactive prevention helps reduce claims over time. Supporting healthy habits reduces the likelihood of serious illness, which keeps premiums down.Productivity: engaged employees do better work. In fact, three decades of Gallup research found that business units in the top quartile of employee engagement were 23% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile.Employer brand: a well-rounded, accessible employee benefits programme helps attract top candidates. It signals that your company takes wellbeing seriously, which is increasingly non-negotiable for jobseekers.And data from YuLife’s own Workplace Wellbeing Trends report reinforces this connection. Of employees who described their wellbeing as “good”, 71% said they were not looking to change jobs. But among those with poor wellbeing, that number dropped to 30%. In other words, the better someone feels at work, the more likely they are to stay.Why many benefits programmes fall shortMany organisations launch benefits initiatives with the best of intentions but fail to see meaningful engagement or outcomes. Often, the issue isn’t the benefits themselves, but how they’re delivered, communicated, and integrated into everyday employee life.Too often, benefits programmes are fragmented, under-promoted, or perceived as irrelevant. Employees may be unaware of what's available, unsure how to access it, or unconvinced of its value. In these cases, even the most generous offerings can go underutilised.Brett Hill, Head of Health & Protection at Broadstone, captures this gap perfectly in our Workplace Wellbeing Trends report: many digital wellbeing tools “launch with a big fanfare” but end up gathering “theoretical dust” on people’s phones. “Engagement is key to the success of wellbeing initiatives, and many programmes fail because they generate short-term interest but don’t sustain behaviour change over time,” he says.In other words, engagement isn’t automatic, especially when employees are overwhelmed, burnt out, or working remotely.This lack of engagement has consequences. According to YuLife’s survey, only 17% of employees said they would be “very likely” to recommend their employer based on its wellbeing offer. That means the majority either don’t feel supported or don’t see the benefit. In today’s job market, where wellbeing is increasingly a deciding factor for candidates, that’s a risk most employers can’t afford.“Nobody else is going to step in and tackle this challenge on behalf of employers. That traditional public healthcare safety net that kept the workforce healthy for the benefit of UK employers has gone; it’s not coming back in the near-term, so employers have to step into that healthcare gap now,” Brett explains.The root of the issue? Many programmes are reactive rather than proactive. They focus on fixing problems once they arise, rather than building a culture that promotes ongoing wellbeing. Without a strategy to embed benefits into daily life and reinforce their value over time, ROI is likely to remain elusive.Prevention pays: the business case for wellbeingWhen it comes to delivering ROI through employee benefits, prevention is both a health strategy and a financial one. Waiting until employees fall ill or experience burnout is far more costly than helping them stay healthy in the first place. Yet many employee benefits programmes remain reactive, focused on treatment rather than long-term wellbeing.Investing in proactive wellbeing initiatives such as stress management, sleep improvement, and regular physical activity can help reduce absenteeism, lower insurance claims, and improve workforce resilience. This translates into direct cost savings in the form of fewer sick days, reduced presenteeism, and lower staff turnover.“If most of your strategy is aimed at helping people once they’re already sick, you’re missing the bigger opportunity,” Brett says. Shifting from cure to prevention enables companies to ‘bend the curve’ of future healthcare costs and productivity losses.We all react when someone gets to a really dark place. But what about prevention? That’s where the gap is. Acting early builds long-term organisational health, reducing the likelihood of crisis moments that disrupt teams and drain resources.Ultimately, prevention is one of the few strategies that improves outcomes while reducing costs, making it one of the smartest investments HR teams can make when they need to show results on a budget.How YuLife helps small HR teams deliver big resultsYuLife’s approach is perfectly designed for lean HR teams who need to make every minute—and every pound—count. Instead of static perks, YuLife builds wellbeing into employees’ daily routines through a uniquely—and scientifically validated—gamified experience that is inclusive, engaging and proven to work.Gamification is central to our platform: users earn YuCoin by completing healthy activities such as walking, meditating or getting a good night’s sleep. Those coins can be exchanged for rewards with popular retailers or donated to charity, keeping motivation high. YuLife’s game elements, such as leaderboards, levels, duels and daily quests, transform passive encouragement into active participation. In fact, engagement rates among YuLife users mirror those seen in popular consumer apps such as Duolingo and Pokémon Go.This isn’t just theory. It’s science. YuLife’s gamification model draws on the Behaviour Change Wheel, a framework that identifies the nine intervention functions needed for behaviour change. Game mechanics amplify every one of these nine functions, making healthy behaviour more accessible, motivating and sustainable.And the data backs this up:93% of our users remain active month-to-month1 in 3 users engage dailyMembers using YuLife engage 20 days per month vs just 10 with non-gamified appsOur employee app has also been shown to triple users’ average step count, reduce stress by 53%, and increase productivity by 57%.Critically, YuLife’s wellbeing metric, YuScore, offers real-time visibility into employee health and engagement. “It enables data-driven decisions to enhance support and engagement,” explains Katie Howarth, YuLife’s Head of People.And the results speak for themselves. Five ways to maximise ROI on your benefits programmeGetting ROI from your benefits programme goes beyond what you offer and depends also on how you implement, measure, and communicate those offerings. The best results come when employees understand the benefits, know how to access them, and feel genuinely motivated to engage.That’s where HR teams can play a powerful role as curators and connectors. By tracking what works and continuously optimising the experience, even small teams can deliver outsize results. Here’s how:Review usage regularly: low uptake? Find out why.Focus on prevention: the earlier the intervention, the bigger the long-term impact.Invest in what’s measurable: choose tools that offer clear metrics like YuScore.Make it easy to use: if it takes too many clicks, employees won’t engage.Celebrate wins: incentivise engagement through rewards and recognition.Platforms like YuLife make this easy by offering built-in analytics, automated nudges, and rewards that employees actually value. With the right tools and mindset, maximising ROI becomes less about adding more, and more about activating what you already have.